GCIP 292: Syllabus

INSTRUCTOR
Gregory Kelley
Phone: 760.744.1150 ext 2452
Email: gkelley@palomar.edu

DESCRIPTION
This is a three unit, sixteen week class in which we will study legal issues as they relate to graphic design and Web development. This class will explore designer's rights in their work, specifically relating to property rights, including copyrights, moral rights and resale rights in addition to issues relating to license agreements. We will also discuss issues relating to the principal tenents of intellectual property and Internet law, including the essentials of computer and network technologies and how those technologies are challenging settled legal understandings.

OBJECTIVES
The goal of this course is to introduce students to topics of law and legal study related to graphic design and Web development; develop awareness of the law's relationship with creative media; and to understand and criticise law in its general and specific regulation of design and technology.

OUTCOMES
After taking this course, students will be able to understand design and technology as cultural phenomena within its realtionship with the law; evaluate critically the law's restrictions and promotions on design and technology; understand the nature and diversity of law as a transversal legal subject crossing many differnent legal subject areas; and appreciate the cultural, sociological and legal importance of design and technology from a legal perspective.

MATERIALS
Required Reading:
Crawford, Tad Legal Guide for the Visual Artist, New York: Allworth Press, 2010
Recommended Reading:
Crawford, Tad AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design, NY: Allworth Press, 2008
Creech, Kenneth Electronic Media Law and Regulation, Boston: Focal Press, 2013
Darrell, Keith Issues In Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law, London, UK: Amber Book Company, 2017
Williams, Theo The Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating, and Budgeting, NY: Allworth Press, 2010

GRADING
The student's grade is based on a weekly assignment consisting of a Case Study, a Research Activity, and a Quiz. In addition, there will be four major projects due every four weeks. The total semester value is 1000 points. Assignments will be posted each Monday and are due on Sunday of that week. Assignments not completed on time will get a 50% reduction of points.

A = 1000 – 900 • B = 899 – 800 • C = 799 – 700 • D = 699 – 600 • F = below 599

ATTENDANCE
Students are expected to attend and participate in all meetings of the courses in which they are enrolled. Attending all classes supports full academic development of each learner. Excessive absences are defined as more than the number of times the class meets per week. If you miss more than 2 classes during the semester, every additional absence after that is considered excessive and will lower your grade by a full letter. A student who anticipates missing a high number of classes for excused absences is required to discuss this issue with the instructor during the first week of classes to determine the possible solutions or consequences. Although I may drop students for non-attendance, students should not assume that this will occur. Students are responsible for dropping a course, if that is their intent, to avoid a grade of W or F.

The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 grants two rights to authors of visual works: the right of attribution, and the right of integrity. The right of attribution allows an author to prevent misattribution of a work, and to require that the authorship of the work not be disclosed (i.e. remain anonymous). The right of integrity bars intentional distortion, mutilation, or other modification of a work if that distortion is likely to harm the author's reputation, and prevents the destruction of any work of recognized stature. Therefore, if I paint moustaches on a painting by a famous painter such as Roy Lichtenstein or Frank Stella, I will have violated the artist's moral rights under VARA. If I paint moustaches on an Andy Warhol painting on the other hand, I will not have violated Warhol's VARA rights, because VARA protection ends with the death of the author.

The term moral rights is a translation of the French term droit moral, and refers not to morals as advocated by the religious right, but rather to the ability of authors to control the eventual fate of their works. An author is said to have the moral right to control their work. The concept of moral rights thus relies on the connection between an author and their creation. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational, rather than purely monetary, value of a work to its creator.

The scope of a creator's moral rights is unclear, and differs with cultural conceptions of authorship and ownership, but may include the creator's right to receive or decline credit for their work, to prevent their work from being altered without their permission, to control who owns the work, to dictate whether and in what way the work is displayed, and/or to receive resale royalties. Under American Law, moral rights receive protection through judicial interpretation of several copyright, trademark, privacy, and defamation statues, and through 17 U.S.C. §106A, known as the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA). VARA applies exclusively to visual art. In Europe and elsewhere, moral rights are more broadly protected by ordinary copyright law.