Secret Society Scam

Seems like the scammers have come up with their version of a secret society that could inhabit Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Just so you know what I'm talking about, a relative of mine just received a personalised letter from a PO Box in Las Vegas, Nevada with the following introduction:

Ms [NAME], please forgive us, but we have just taken a closer look at your profile. It turns out you're more special than any of us imagined! Ms [NAME], did you know that you possess some very rare, hidden traits? In fact, there is a famous person (someone you would instantly recognize, he's on TV every night) who possesses these same special, incredibly rare traits... It turns out that people who posses [sic] these same rare and often hidden traits that you do are some of the most famous and successful people on this planet! [NAME], you are indeed blessed! I know those around you don't know this yet,  but they will! Down deep, you sense it, too. Right? I'm so excited for you!"

The letter then goes on to tell its recipient that it is not a solicitation for money and that she must keep everything confidential. Furthermore:

There has existed for many years an exclusive association, a secret society, of the world's most famous and powerful people. These include renowned actors and musicians, leading scientists and intellectuals, self-made entrepreneurs and artists, even some of the rare genuine astrologers and psychics ...

Apparently, this association has uncovered some shockingly powerful secrets and not only have they taken the time to analyse my relative's profile from amongst billions of people in the world to offer her entry into this "exclusive" group, but they are also offering her a Free Report that will "share secrets that lead to prosperity, love happiness, total piece [sic] of mind". The writer – Tiffany – swears on the Bible that all she is saying is true.

I'm not an expert at scams but this one appears to have all the trademarks of a beauty. Firstly, I have no idea how these people obtain their mailing list but I have no doubt it would be a bulk mailout. Secondly, the language is that of cajoling and flattery that appeals to our ego – are we indeed special? we ask ourselves (and unfortunately for many of us logic will go out of the window at this point of time because we want to be a chosen one). Thirdly, there is a promise of exclusivity for us to gain entry into this special club. Fourthly, the stories Tiffany tells us appeals to the child in us that is fascinated with knights and journeys to capture the secret sword to awaken the sleeping parts of ourselves. Fifthly, it appeals to our greed with all the riches on offer. Sixthly, there is also a cut off date which fuels a sense of urgency and our fear that we will miss out – a powerful marketing tool that forces people to make a decision to accept the invitation. My relative must respond by this Friday but there is no actual date on the letter. Call me sceptical but I'm pretty sure if my relative responded they wouldn't care if it were Friday of this week or next month or a Friday next year. And lastly, we ask ourselves – a Free Report – what harm can that do? The problem is that if you respond then your private information will be captured forever rather like the secret soul names of Gods in ancient mythology. These unscrupulous scammers are not the kind to have opt-out and unsubscribe options for people on their mailing list or database. They will either hit you for the definitive book on their secrets or lifetime membership for a couple of hundred bucks, or they will keep hounding you with increasingly higher offers – you may be asked to pay $20 for the first one then $100 for the second, $250 for the third and so on. I mean, how can you resist the promise of the material when they even bring God into the equation – and that's just in the invitation letter! 

And finally, If my relative doesn't answer the invitation she will never hear from these people again!  Well er ... good! 

And by the way, with all the spelling mistakes in the letter I wonder why no intellectual from this secret society has been asked to proof it!

Orphan Works Bill Update

We've been keeping tabs on the whole issue of the US Orphan Works Bill through the comics creator who has her finger permanently of the pulse – Ms Colleen Doran. 

Colleen reports in her Distant Soil blog that there is good news on the horizon – Congress is about to abolish the Intellectual Property (IP) Subcommittee on Judiciary Panel – but not to get too excited about it, as the Orphan Works Bill could become the scylla and charybdis of American politics. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers will abolish the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property in the new Congress and instead keep intellectual property issues at the full committee level ... Hot topics like overhauling the U.S. patent system; ending a long-standing music royalty exemption for AM and FM radio and changing a portion of copyright law that deals with musical tracks, writings, images, videos or other content whose owners cannot be easily identified drew ample attention from the high-tech and entertainment industries.

The reason we've taken an interest in this is because of the potential spill-over to Australian artists if this Bill is passed. Here is a typical case study of the implications, affecting no other than Black Mermaid Productions™ artist himself, Jozef Szekeres.

A few months ago Jozef was commissioned to provide some artwork for Sleazeball 2008. The organisers wanted to release a 16-piece limited edition trading card set under the 'Villain's Lair" theme, which focused on the iconic artwork of Glen Hanson. Mr Hansen, who was the advertised and promoted celebrity artist for the event, was to provide five characters for the cards. Jozef was asked to provide 11 further characters and to render them according to Glen Hanson's distinct style. Jozef made it clear from the first meeting that the card set would need to be credited properly with the appropriate signatures and copyright information, so as not to cause confusion in the marketplace about who had painted what character. This was duly reflected in the contract.

After the card set was released, Jozef noticed that the identifying information was not on it for either artist. When he queried the organisers they claimed that the artwork had not been checked internally and the artists' credits had been forgotten. However, all the appropriate attributions had been made on the rogue's gallery poster of the entire cast of characters which had been released at the same time and therefore, at least from their point of view, it was not a problem. Jozef was given two tickets to an event as compensation. 

These trading cards are now in general circulation and Jozef's fears have become real. Firstly, when he has talked to people who had a card set and identified himself as the artist for his specific pieces, most of them asked him if he was Glenn Hanson. Secondly (and here we must project into the future a bit), long after the Sleaze Ball 2008 information is taken off the Mardi Gras website and long after the organisers have moved on, in all likelihood people will assume that Jozef's art is in fact Glenn Hanson's and will either attribute it incorrectly or will have nowhere to start tracking the identity of the real artist for those specific eleven character pieces. If these cards were to surface in the US some time down the track and somebody wanted to use the artwork under the Orphan Work Bill, then they could do some preliminary searches and then if unsuccessful in the first instance, use the artwork without permission. Furthermore, if it is published in any form where it is presumed to be Glenn Hanson's work (and Glen Hanson is not there to tell them otherwise) then the artwork could be credited to the wrong artist for years and years to come.

This is all speculative we know, but these are also very plausible scenarios. The cards are in print forever (or at least until the last set remains on earth) but the artist and the people or archives who/which would tell us otherwise, could be long gone. We don't think it is unreasonable for an artist – any artist (and we use this term to include musicians, writers, sculptors and so on) – to protect their artistic legacy.

It is our understanding that under the Orphan Work Bills if someone searches for the copyright holder (usually the artist) and cannot find them and they can prove that they actually did a basic search, then the artwork is up for grabs for them to use as they like when they like. In the case of these trading cards, because the art does not carry any identifying marks or signatures to point people in the direction of the artist (Jozef), this is quite a likely outcome.

So if you are an artist then use those signatures, watermarks, copyright and trademark information liberally so there are electronic and print published pointers and pathways to you now and in the future. And furthermore ... you may also want to embed a clause in any upcoming contracts that basically gets the commissioner to have an added interest in being responsible about complying about attribution so there are no accidental slip ups – if the artwork is released without proper credit then the commissioner will need to compensate you financially for their lack of attention to detail.

And if you are a commissioner and not an artist then try to look at it from an artists' point of view – they have a moral entitlement to be credited and paid for their art. 

Resale Royalties for Visual Artists

We just asked Jeremy Fisher, Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors, whether this applies to comic book artists and he replied, "Not yet.  But if the original artwork was sold separately, as book illustrators do through galleries, yes it would". We'll keep you posted on this but in the meantime we recommend you support this initiative by signing the petition, or writing to the relevant ministers and government departments.

Superhero Colour Matching

Yes, we agree with J K Parkin from the Newsarama blog who spotted this piece and who in turn gives credit to Rob at the Aquaman Shrine  – THIS IS WAY COOL! I personally love looking at style guides, model sheets and all the components that go into branding bibles. We thought you'd get a kick out of this bit of DC Comics history too. It's a bit like choosing the colours to paint your walls at home.

Mermaid Treasures 10

My lovely friend Kathy from Wisconsin sent me this charming piece several years ago for Christmas. It's a "Laini's Ladies" mermaid hanging adornment created by Portland, Oregon artist Laini Taylor. There's a real contemporary look to her – she reminds of a flapper mermaid (although I am still trying to figure our how peacock feather wings are practical for a mermaid in water but that's just the writer in me). For those of you who are interested in obtaining her, check out the Mermaid Perch online store. Her catalogue number is #60106. If you are interested in seeing more of the Liani's Ladies range go to Bottman Design – there are lots of bohemian ladies, fairies, muses and goddesses to choose from including the Diet Goddess and the Muse of Chocolate.   

Reality Show Delusions

Just read an interesting article in my latest Fortean Times magazine, which describes a newly identified mental illness called the Truman Show Delusion. 

Now, The Truman Show happens to be one of my favourite films of all time and I think Jim Carrey is sensational in it. I had been ambivalent about him previously but he completely won me over in the role of Truman Burbank. For me, The Truman Show is a prison break movie, but obviously now in the world of modern psychiatry and the world of psychoses,  it has evolved into something else entirely. 

Apparently, two psychiatrist brothers from Montreal, Canada, Joel and Ian Gold, have noticed an increase in the frequency of patients (usually educated white men aged 24 to 34) who believe they are the subjects of their own reality television shows. Joe Gold, 39, who has worked at New York's Bellevue Hospital for eight years says:

"The delusions we typically treat are narrow: there is the Capgras delusion, where someone will think his family has been replaced by doubles. Or the Fregoli delusion, where someone believes that one person is persecuting him: a doctor, mailman, butcher. The Truman Show delusion, though, involve the entire world..."

"Typically, the Truman Show delusion is a combination of paranoia, grandiosity and ideas of reference, which means that patients believe they are receiving signals specifically meant for them from a newscast or something like, that," said Dr Gold.

Apparently, there are at least 40 reported cases in the world thus far. Makes you wonder whether delusions evolve in line with the prevailing cultural landscape. What, for example, would have been the equivalent of this delusion in Victorian times or the Renaissance period in Europe?

In the meantime, you can learn more at the International Herald Tribune. 

Killer Robots Coming Soon!

It's curious that just hours before I watch the 2004 movie I Robot for the first time, which is screening on Channel 7 in Sydney tonight, that I should receive an AlterNet article by Scott Thill called Are Pentagon Nerds Developing Packs of Man-Hunting Killer Robots? in my email in-box. Go figure! The article explains that:

... the "Multi-Robot Pursuit System" would need "a software and sensor package to enable a team of robots to search for and detect human presence in an indoor environment." The robots would be led by a human commander using "semiautonomous map-based control." For good measure, the offer added that there "has also been significant research in the game-theory community involving pursuit/evasion scenarios." According to the offer, the robots should weight a little over 200 pounds apiece, and there should be three to five of them assigned to their human overlord.

The superficial logic at work in this curious merge of machine and flesh dictates that this speculative pack of robots would greatly reduce the human danger inherent in hunting down armed or violent persons hiding indoors. After all, robots are used today to detect and detonate incendiary devices; in fact, those very robots were evolved, armed and deployed to Bagdad, where they are currently awaiting orders to fire. The Pentagon's future robot pack is just the next inevitable step in that human evolution ... If a robot is smart enough to detect bombs, it's smart enough to hunt down enemies. Give it a gun and count the saved lives on reality TV.

I don't know whether to be scared or grateful...