GAG vs. IPA, or when an advocate sues their own

When you go to the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) website an illustrator is prominently featured on the left sidebar under the headline "I Am the Guild." This is a bit ironic when reading about the recent New York State Supreme Court case involving the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) and the Illustrators' Partnership of America (IPA) as well as reading GAG's advocacy policy where they position themselves as an advocate for illustrators.In the Fall of 2008 GAG brought a lawsuit against IPA for defamation and interference with contractual relations, alleging that IPA had interfered with a “business relationship” GAG had entered into that enabled GAG to collect orphaned reprographic royalties derived from the licensing of illustrators’ work. GAG alleged that efforts by IPA to create a collecting society to return lost royalties to artists “interfered” with GAG’s “business” of appropriating these orphaned fees.(1)Judge Debra James recently ruled that statements made by the Illustrators’ Partnership and the other defendants were true; that true statements cannot be defamatory; that illustrators have a “common interest” in orphaned income; and that a “common-interest privilege” may arise from both a right and a duty to convey relevant information, however contentious, to others who share that interest or duty.(2)To put this in perspective, the amount of money that's at stake is substantial. Labor Department filings state that between 2000 and 2007, GAG collected at least $1,581,667 in illustrators’ reprographic royalties.(3)It's certainly not unusual for groups with common interests to be scrambling for the same pool of funds. It makes one wonder how much the stakes affected GAG's decision to sue and how much money effects an individual's or organization's professional behavior.Read the press release on the Daily Cartoonist and find links to ECourt documents submitted in the case.Read Steven Heller's article, "Illustration and the Law," about the recent events including an interview with Brad Holland, one of the IPA defendants.Read the Illustrators Partnership Orphan Works statement.1. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/04/28/judge-dismisses-case-against-illustrators-partnership-of-america/?et_mid=458663&rid=37033452. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/04/28/judge-dismisses-case-against-illustrators-partnership-of-america/?et_mid=458663&rid=37033453. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2011/04/28/judge-dismisses-case-against-illustrators-partnership-of-america/?et_mid=458663&rid=3703345