In April we conduced our ninth trip since 2012 to Guangzhou, China to attend the Canton Fair and Jinhan Fair.
The group of Art Copyright Coalition (ACC) members walked the shows hunting for illegal copies of artwork and confronting infringers. The good news is that infringements were at the lowest level we have seen since we started making this grueling semi-annual trek. Further good news is that when confronted, almost all of the infringers immediately removed product. They appear to have accepted the concept of copyright. Of course as always there were a few exhibitors with a lot of copies, and we caused quite a commotion and drew a big audience as they embarrassingly removed artwork from their walls.
In a few cases there were companies who believed incorrectly that they had purchased the rights to use the artwork. This is the most insidious form of copyright theft, as certain scoundrels scan artwork and then “sell” it online to unsuspecting buyers who believe they are acting legitimately. ACC efforts to uncover and combat these criminals are ongoing.
Meanwhile the ACC has a public Black List of repeat copyright infringers.
