On Sun, 26 Sep 1999 22:39:03 -0400, "Gautam N. Lad" <vnl### [at] mynacom> wrote:

>I bought a text-book for one of my college courses, and lo-and-behold, one
>of my renderings (Grade One), was in the book.  I was so surprised and
>happy, considering it was the only non-winning image among other IRTC
>winners/runner ups.
>
>The book is called: Computers:
>Tools for an Information Age 6th Edition by H.L. Capron
>ISBN: 0-201-61211-9
>http://www.prenhall.com/capron
>
>Problem is, I was never told that my image would be appearing in the book.
>Is this somehow breaking one of the IRTC rules or violating my copyrights?

  Gautam, I read the IRTC copyright rules at http://www.irtc.org/copy.html
and, IMO, I believe your copyright on your artwork has been violated by the
publisher and the author, H.L. Capron. You might contact Nathan O'Brien and
Fabien Mosen and ask them if their artwork has also been used without their
permission. They frequent these groups and their e-mail addresses should
also be contained in the comment descriptions that accompany their IRTC
entries.

  I don't know what recourse you have but I would first contact the
publisher by e-mail and save all e-correspondence. If they do not reply to
e-mail then I would write a letter and send it by certified mail accompanied
by a return receipt (if you are in the U.S.) to maintain a record of
correspondence. At this point in time, I would not simply grant the
publisher permission to continue to use your artwork because this might set
some sort of precedent for the other artists involved. While it might be
unlikely that you could force the publisher to pull the books from
distribution without hiring an attorney, you and the other artists might
consider accepting a free copy of the book as a gesture of goodwill, or in
your case, a full refund of the price you paid for the book. I would also
ask that any future editions of the book adhere to the copyright notice
displayed at the above-mentioned IRTC page.

  You might also e-mail Chris Cason to inform him about this book since the
IRTC also has certain rights regarding use of submitted artwork.

  This is what I would do but you might discuss it with others before
proceeding, as I am not a copyright specialist or an attorney.

-- 
Alan
http://www.povray.org - Home of the Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer

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