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Cartoonist Legal Issues

© Stu Rees

This article is directed toward the aspiring cartoonists among you.

The information in this article is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation. In addition, neither the exchange of information nor the response to an e-mail or other communication establishes any attorney-client relationship.

Every cartoonist needs to know quite a bit of law. Simply put, you are not in the business of selling cartoons. Rather, you are in the business of selling the legal right to use your cartoons. Not knowing how to protect your rights will lower your income.

Critical Recent Event

In early February 2002, the California tax authorities (specifically, the California Board of Equalization) voted to clarify the sales tax regulations affecting illustrators, photographers, cartoonists and designers. This will help in four ways: 1) It virtually exempts sales tax on all reproduction rights (including royalties) on the artwork of graphic artists. 2) It exempts from sales tax artwork delivered on computer disk if the disk is returned. 3) It exempts sales tax on print design when the designer buys the printing. 4) It clearly specifies that commercial photographers working in the advertising and publishing fields are considered graphic artists.

For more infomation, see http://norcal.gag.org

Copyrights

Copyright registration is cheap, easy, feasible without a lawyer, and definitely worthwhile.

Although you technically own a "copyright" without the registration, an unregistered copyright is nearly useless. Registration gives your copyright teeth. For example, in a lawsuit you would be able to recover legal fees, expenses, and "statutory" damages.

To illustrate, if you sue a fraternity for printing 50 t-shirts, but your copyright is unregistered, you might lose $3,900, even if you win the case. How? The court might set your "actual" damages at $2 per t-shirt (a reasonable royalty) for a total of $100, but you would not be entitled to recover your $3,000 lawyer's fee and $1,000 in expenses. With a registered copyright, the same infringement might return a $10,000 profit from the $10,000 "statutory" damages and $4,000 to offset your lawyer's fees and expenses.

Furthermore, opposing lawyers understand the difference between a registered and unregistered copyright. Since a registration lowers your risk and greatly increases that of the infringer, the opposing lawyer is much more likely to respect your cease and desist letter and/or settle out of court.

Best of all, you can register an entire year's material with a single $30 filing fee. For more information and filing forms, visit the U.S. Copyright Office at www.loc.gov/copyright or call (202) 707-3000.