ABOUT COPYRIGHT
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
All works of art displayed on this site are subject to copyright. They may not be copied or reproduced in anyway, either mechanically, electronically or by hand or used for any purpose, other than to view at this website, without prior permission of the artist. Mark Salwowski asserts and reserves his right to be identified as the creator and copyright holder of these images.
This is enforceable by relevant national and international laws enacted pursuant to The World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) of 1994 (Uruguay, GATT) and its subsequent amendments. This applies regardless of whether a copyright notice is present or displayed.
"Copyright is supposed to protect the rights of artists and authors from others who might want to copy their work for personal or corporate gain. However, I have my doubts about whether the present intellectual property laws do so in a wise way. I’m not going to go into detail now, I'll save my views and theories for a future blog, but let’s just say, their enforcement is targeted like a scattergun and often it's the honest folk that suffer. In theory the laws are there to protect everyone’s rights. In practice though the ones who benefit most are corporations and businesses, firstly because they can pass on an arbitrary cost of enforcing the laws to the consumer and secondly because they are the ones with the money and time to litigate. Often, the people at the bottom miss out, whether that’s the artists, authors or scientists that did the initial creation or the people that need to use their creations or the innocent consumer who pays extra for the goods."
"There has to be a distinction made between real pirates who rip CDs sell them to an unsuspecting public and Aunt Trudy who wants to video little Tommy as he sings copyrighted songs in the school production of Grease. The difference is clearly the profit motive but the law applies equally to both. Aunt Trudy is just as open to prosecution."
"Of course I don’t want anyone ripping me off, -anyone who tries to profit from my work without including me in the deal is without question a thief pure and simple. At the same time though I’d like the people who appreciate my work to be able to view it as easily as possible. I’m an artist for heaven’s sake, I live to have folk enjoy looking at my pictures, it’s my raison d’etre."
"This is why I’ve included some higher resolution images in the galleries. They’re not a high enough resolution to be commercially printable but someone might want to print off a single low quality version for themselves at home. Of course, I have high-resolution scans available for anyone caring to pay for a high quality print or purchase second-rights."
"So, I hope you enjoy the site and my art and if you’re in any doubt about what you’re allowed to do with the images, with all of the above in mind, let good sense and conscience be your guide."
