This section contains information relating to our associations' professional annual meetings. These meetings are vital not only for the financial health of our organizations, but they also represent great opportunities for all of us to gain new skills, to share academic or research interests, and to acquire continuing education hours for certification.

We continue to expand this section to include recent manufacturer press releases and other noteworthy items of information for our JBC subscribers and Association members. Please let us know how we may improve this section, as well as other components of your Journal.

Upcoming 2007 Meetings

Combined Australian Conference
May 3 - 6, 2007
Melbourne, Australia

The Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustration
The Photo Marketing Association
The Photo Imaging Education Association
The Institute of Photographic Technology

The Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustration is holding it’s 17th Biennial Conference in Melbourne, May 3 - 6, 2007, at the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre.

For this conference we will be collaborating with the Photo Marketing Association, the affiliated Photo Imaging Education Association, and the Institute of Photographic Technology. This will be an exciting new event with the three organizations coming together to present this diverse conference.

The organizations have quite a history in scientific, medical and photo education. IPT was founded in 1946 for the advancement of technical and scientific photography. The Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustration (AIMBI) was formed in 1965 and is the only professional Australian organization for medical photography. To celebrate our combined 100 years of photographic practice, we will be joining with the Photo Imaging Education Association (PIEA) in Melbourne. Please mark out your diary for this event taking place from May 3 - 6, 2007.

This will be an exciting networking opportunity and a chance to mix with photographers whose work may be different from your own. This is also a chance to attend the extensive photographic trade show and ask the distributors all the questions you can about the latest technologies all under one roof. The cost of the conference has been kept to a minimum so that as many people can participate as possible.

The PMA has offered us a special price of $120.00 this is great value for our members as it also includes access to the PMA events. Registration for the conference is via www.pmai.org/australia2007.

You must register on the PMA Australia 2007 Imaging Technology Expo Registration form. You also will need to check the PIEA member box, and the all the PIEA and print sessions. You must write in the special rate of $120.00, as the total amount is not listed on the form.

In addition we are calling for entries for a professional exhibition of AIMBI. Entries selected will be hung alongside images from IPT and RMIT at the PMA trade show located at the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre, 2 Clarendon Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3006.

For further information contact Arthur Wigley: arthur.wigley@mh.org.au

The European Federation of Scientific Image (EFSI) announces: Image Language

EFSI Conference:  June 1 & 2,  2007   
Location: Academic Medical Centre
G4-123 
Meibergdreef 9  Amsterdam
The Netherlands

The European Federation of Scientific Image would like to announce that the EFSI Conference, whose theme is Image Language, will be held from June 1 - 2, 2007 at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Speakers and specialists representing the digital photographic industry will present and discuss the latest software and hardware. There will be a special emphasis on software of Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3, Lightroom, Illustrator, and Nikon Capture NX.
 
The official conference language will be English.
The conference fee is only € 85.00 for members of EFSI
Registration for non-members:  € 115.00
 Lunch, coffee and tea are included in the registration fee.
We are proud that we can offer this excellent photographic program, and we invite you to register and attend.
The Conference is sponsored by the Academic Medical Center (AMC), the Federation of Scientific Image Support (FSIS), Nikon GmbH Nikon Professional Service (NPS), and The Result Builders computer training.

For additional information about the EFSI meeting: www.nvmac.nl

HeSCA 48th International Conference on Health and Science Communications

Conference: June 14-16, 2007
Toronto, Canada
Learn about innovative developments in health, medical, and scientific communication, and how information and technology can work together to provide communication solutions for your organization.  See how communication technology of the future will serve the medical and scientific fields.
Connect with other health and science communications professionals from all over the world in the areas of web site development, media production, instructional design, media library, and communications management.

All in the beautiful city of Toronto: The World Within a City.
HeSCA Meeting Website:
http://www.hesca.org/meeting/index.html  

Toronto Convention & Visitors Association
http://www.torontotourism.com/visitor

Announcing the Annual Meeting of
The Association of Biomedical Communications Directors Conference and Annual Retreat

June 14 - 16, 2007
Toronto, Canada

ABCD is co-locating with our HeSCA colleagues again this year for this combined meeting. The ABCD membership is encouraged to register for the entire HeSCA meeting, the workshops, and informative sessions through the HeSCA meeting website:

http://www.hesca.org/meeting/index.html    

Information Communications Marketplace
to be held in Anaheim, California

Conference: June 15-21, 2007
Exhibition: June 19-21, 2007

InfoComm is the Best Conference and Exhibition to Explore AV Technologies!

InfoComm is the largest event for the professional AV and information communications industry. It's the only show you need to see the newest technologies for audio, video, display, projection, lighting and staging, digital signage, conferencing, digital content creation, networking, signal distribution and much more!

The InfoComm Conference and Exhibition will feature:

-  Display and projection technologies
-  Multimedia products and services
-  Digital signage       
-  Networked information systems
-  Audio technologies and services
-  Security systems
-  Streaming media
-  Residential A-V systems
-  Video and video production  
-  Furniture, racks, cases, stands
-  Lighting and staging 
-  Cables and connectors
-  Digital cinema and entertainment systems    
-  Wireless systems
-  Control, interfacing, and signal distribution
-  Structured wiring
-  Collaborative conferencing including audio, video, data, and web

Interested in exhibiting? Hurry to capture already limited space by e-mailing exhibitsales@infocomm.org.

InfoComm 07 Meeting website: http://infocomm05.expoexchange.com/content/Home.asp

Announcing the 77th Annual Meeting
BioCommunications Association

BIOCOMM - 2007
July 22 - 27, 2007
Tucson, Arizona

BIOCOMM is the annual meeting of the BioCommunications Association. It is held once a year in North America. It covers several days of seminars, workshops, a juried exhibition of work, and business meetings of the Association.

Commercial representation and sponsorship provides members with updates on media technology.

BIOCOMM - 2007 Meeting Website: http://www.bca.org/annual_meeting/index.html

Announcing the 2007 Annual Meeting of the
Association of Medical Illustrators

Bozeman, Montana 
July 18-22, 2007

Bozeman, Montana 
July 18 - 22, 2007
 
While the superb offerings of the AMI annual meeting are typically enticing in their own right, next July's ('07) event in Bozeman, Montana is a rare and special delight that you won't want to miss. Bozeman is nestled in the eastern side of the Rockies and is at the gateway to Yellowstone National Park. People from the four corners of the world come to see this wonder. What better place than the "High, Wide and Handsome" to get our creative juices flowing!

Not only is this event a top-notch opportunity for professional development, networking and socializing with your fellow illustrators, it is also an outstanding occasion to plan the family vacation of a lifetime. Hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, outdoor sketching, mountain-biking... these are just a few of the possibilities for recreation in the Treasure State. A backdrop of unsurpassed beauty and preserved wildlife gives it the well-earned moniker "The Last Best Place".

John Steinbeck wrote: "I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love..."  Discover for yourself the grandeur that inspired Mr. Steinbeck. If you plan to enjoy any of the surrounding parks, summer accommodations fill up fast,  so start planning early for this AMI adventure. And we'll see you soon in Big Sky Country!

Mark your calendars for July 18-22, 2007.

Pam Little
Montana 2007 Meeting Coordinator and
Program Committee Chair

More information will be coming soon, please visit:  www.ami.org/2007/

Visit the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce site: 
www.bozemanchamber.com/

Announcing SIGGRAPH 34th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques

SIGGRAPH 2007

San Diego, California,
Conference August 5 - 9, 2007
Exhibition   August 7 - 9, 2007

In the next 12 months, there's only one opportunity to understand, create, experience, and debate every aspect of computer graphics and interactive techniques: SIGGRAPH 2007 in San Diego.

Digital innovators, creative researchers, award-winning producers, provocative artists, energetic executives, and adventurous engineers. The worldwide SIGGRAPH community gathers in San Diego to explore the products, systems, techniques, ideas, and inspiration that are creating the next three generations of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Learn from the world's leading experts, as they present advanced theory and practical applications. See the year's finest international achievements in digital art, animation, and visual effects. Meet SIGGRAPH Pioneers and emerging achievers.

Plan to attend and exchange ideas, insights, and inspiration with people who share your goals and aspirations.

For more information visit:  http://www.siggraph.org/s2007

The Ophthalmic Photographers' Society Annual Meeting and the OPS New Orleans Educational Program

38th Annual Meeting of the OPS
November 9-13, 2007

Hotel information has not yet been released by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Detailed information should be available in March-April 2007.

http://www.opsweb.org/Educat/Annual/index.html

Related Association News

The Illustrators' Partnership of America

The Association of Medical Illustrators, in conjunction with The Society of Illustrators, The National Cartoonists Society, The American Society of Architectural Illustrators, and The Illustrators' Partnership of America, continues to seek better ways to market and license the rights to their creative work.

One of the goals of this working coalition is still to explore the possibility of collecting and pooling artists' reprographic fees in order to create a collective rights administration to return reproduction royalties to illustrators. Since the birth of the Illustrators' Partnership of America, the organization's key mission has been the development of a licensing agency that would truly represent the best interests of American artists and illustrators.

For more information about the Illustrators' Partnership of America, visit the IPA Website at http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/

For information about protecting your copyrights:

http://www.copyright.com/
http://www.ifrro.org/ 
http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

Proposed Legislation Could Orphan Copyrights

On January 23, 2006 the U.S. Copyright Office issued their Orphan Works Report, outlining their recommendations to Congress for changes to the 1976 Copyright Act. While we know the Copyright Office made a sincere effort to solve the problem of copyright availability for users, we believe these proposed changes will undermine copyright protections for artists.

The report defines an "orphan work" as any work where the author is unidentifiable or unlocatable, regardless of the age of the work. It extends to both published and unpublished works, and includes both U.S. and foreign works. At 127 pages, the report is too long to analyze in detail here, but you can access it at the Copyright Office website. For those who wish to cut to the chase, the explicit language for their proposed changes can be found on page 127.

"For authors and copyright owners, marking copies of their works with identifying information is likely the most significant step they can take to avoid the work falling into the orphan works category. This is particularly true for works of visual art, like photographs and illustrations, that otherwise do not contain text or other information that a user can rely on to help determine the identity of the copyright owner. Nothing in the Office's recommendation would make such markings mandatory . . . Nevertheless, the presence and quality of the information on particular copies will be a highly relevant fact as to whether a reasonable search will find the copyright owner."  (p. 9, emphasis added)  

In other words, the "information" that has been placed on your work will be a "highly relevant fact" in determining - for legal purposes - whether a user has made a "reasonable search" to find you before he or she uses your work. But since the report doesn't set objective standards for what constitutes a "reasonable search," it paves the way for endless ambiguity. What do you do if a user infringes your work after what he regards as a reasonable effort to find you? What if someone simply uses your work on the grounds that you may not find out about it, and if you do, justifies his actions by citing the "fact" that your work lacked "relevant information?"
   
No Penalties For Infringing Orphan Work
Those who have demanded this legislation have argued that users should not be subject to penalties for infringing orphan work. They say that the public should be encouraged to use this work and that penalties would discourage use. The Copyright Office has agreed:  

"Our recommendation follows this suggestion by limiting the possible monetary relief in these cases to only 'reasonable compensation' which is intended to represent the amount the user would have paid to the owner had they engaged in negotiations before the infringing use commenced." (p. 12)

In other words, if someone infringes your work because they couldn't find you - and you come forward to claim authorship - this system would only require the infringer to pay you the fee they presume you would have "negotiated." Yet if someone has already published your work - and faces no risk for statutory damages, attorneys‚ fees and court costs, they'll be in a better position than you to dictate what constitutes a "reasonable" fee. And unless you can work with the fee they offer, you'll have no choice but to take the issue to court, knowing that the cost of litigation could well exceed whatever "reasonable compensation" the courts might determine.
   
By considering and rejecting remedies for infringement, the Copyright Office acknowledged the complaints by creators‚ groups that individual authors generally lack the resources to police unauthorized usage:

"While corporate copyright owners were generally in favor of a reasonable compensation approach, individual authors like photographers, illustrators and graphic artists noted that under current conditions, obtaining a lawyer to even file an infringement case is prohibitively expensive, so much so that only where statutory damages are available is it possible to file a case. If compensation were limited to only a reasonable royalty, they fear that it will likewise be practically impossible even to recover that compensation given the cost of litigation." ( p. 117)

But while the Report expresses "sympathy" for this fact of life, it states that "[t]his problem . . . has existed for some time and goes beyond the orphan works situation, extending to all types of infringement of the works of individual authors . . . It is not, however, within the province of this study on orphan works." (p.114, emphasis added)
   
Yet if the problem is not within the province of the Orphan Works Study, we must introduce it into the coming debate over legislation. Otherwise, a law that exposes vast quantities of copyrighted work to potential abuse could make the existing bad situation worse, making payment for usage the option of last resort for any user who chooses to exploit this glaring loophole.
 
Are Registries a Solution?
The Orphan Works Report notes that many respondents to the Study proposed "registries or other databases of owner or user information" as a possible solution of tracking rights holders.  A publicly available visual artists registry would match unidentified art to an artist and/or the artist's contact information. But creating a registry requires technology and staff unavailable to independent artists. Other countries protect their artists' exclusive rights through the administration of collecting societies. The Orphan Works Report states that "such administrative mechanisms might ultimately be of great assistance in helping put owners and users of orphan works together" (p. 95), but says the Copyright Office lacks the resources to create and administer them:

"[W]e believe that registries are critically important, if not indispensable, to addressing the orphan works problem, as we explain above. It is our view that such registries are better developed in the private sector, and organically become part of the reasonable search by users by creating incentives for authors and owners to ensure that their information is included in the relevant databases."  (p.106, emphasis added)

But if Congress can’t allocate funds to create the kind of registry that Orphan Works legislation would make "indispensable," Congress should not impose that burden on rights holders as a condition of maintaining their copyrights.  Especially since the effect of these changes would be retroactive, that is, affecting work created over the last 28 years, during which time artists did work with the expectation that it would be protected - whether marked and registered or not, for their lifetime plus 50 (now 70) years.
   
Specific Exemptions as a Solution
We believe most artists would agree with the Copyright Office that an orphan works problem exists.  Any of us who have ever wanted to duplicate old family photos will understand how troublesome (even futile) it can be to try tracking down a long-lost photographer or other potential rights-holder. But if Congress concludes that legislation is necessary to solve problems like this, we urge them to craft specific, limited exemptions instead of sweeping legislation that shifts the burden of diligence from users to copyright holders.

A limited exemption could be crafted to solve family photo restoration and reproduction issues without otherwise gutting photographers' copyrights. Usage for genealogy research is probably already covered by fair use, but could be specifically exempted if necessary. Limited exemptions could be designed for documentary filmmakers as well. Libraries and archives already have generous exemptions for their not-for-profit missions, but if their missions are changing to include for-profit ventures, they should abide by commercial standards for the usage of copyrighted material.
   
The Next Step
In conducting this study, the Copyright Office identified as the primary goal of Orphan Works legislation: "to make it more likely that a user can find the relevant owner in the first instance, and negotiate a voluntary agreement over permission and payment, if appropriate, for the intended use of the work." (p. 8) Yet we're afraid that this system as proposed will do little to "bring users and authors together." In fact, it could well force authors into the "marketplace" of the courts to attempt recovery of compensation after their work has been used and their copyrights compromised.

Last spring nearly 2,000 individual artists and 42 organizations joined us in opposing Orphan Works legislation. We thank all of you for your responses to our submission to the Study. Since then, we've had several opportunities to express our opposition directly to the Copyright Office. We participated in the government‚s two-day Orphan Works roundtables last July 26 and 27, and at their invitation, we met individually with Copyright Office attorneys on November 17. Now we'll need to rally again to see that the proposals in this study are not enacted into law. This will require a practical strategy and a concerted effort. We'll keep you informed as this develops, and we'll let you know how you can help.

Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner
for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership of America

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/

The Vesalius Trust

About The Vesalius Trust

History of the Trust
Since its founding in 1988, the Trust has endeavored to identify and secure funding for educational and research activities in visual communications in the health sciences, and to act as a conduit for these resources. Currently, the Trust supports: scholarships, research grants, continuing professional education, and an international recognition program for exceptional contributions to medical education.

The Frank H. Netter, M.D. Award and Vesalius Trust Awards of Excellence recognize and honor significant contributions to the field of health science communications.

Mission of the Trust
To provide leadership for the advancement of education and research in visual communications for the health sciences.

Vision Statement
To be known as the premier resource for funding of visual communications in the health sciences.

Our Commitment
Our commitment to support visual communications in the health sciences is broad. During the past year, the Trust has endeavored to form alliances with related groups and associations within the field of biocommunication. The Trust not only supports scholarship and research in the profession of medical illustration, but also includes and supports the areas of biomedical and scientific photography, biomedical visualization, anatomical animation, life science and zoological illustration, microbiological and molecular visualization, video production, and biomedical research.

Contributions
We welcome financial contributions of any size from individuals or corporations interested in the Trust's mission. Those individuals interested in making a tax deductible contribution to the Vesalius Trust are encouraged to visit the Trust's website below.

E-mail inquiries regarding the Vesalius Trust are also encouraged at: Vesaliustrust@aol.com

Please visit The Vesalius Trust's web site for additional information:
http://www.vesaliustrust.org