Our regular readers may notice (over the next week or so) that Duct Tape and Bubblegum is getting a makeover. It’s going to have a bit of a Frankenblog flavor until we can dial in a fabulous, cohesive look.

To catch you up, Brian and I are activists in the area of ethics and artist’s rights. Brian works in film and music, and I, having been an artist (back in the day), now see clients in my practice who are creative professionals and artists. Both Brian and I have seen many artists, musicians and creative professionals financially suffer and develop serious emotional problems as a result of copyright theft and piracy.

There is a lot of misinformation and controversy around this issue, and Duct Tape and Bubblegum (the blog) will not be taking up the cause, except that we have decided to change content on our blog. We are no longer going to use photographs that we find from Creative Commons websites, or elsewhere on the interweb. Though it is fantastic that artists are donating their work to share, there are far too many people uploading the photographs (musics, blogs, books, apps, software etc) of others, that do not rightfully belong to them. We do not have the time or resources to determine if the photos we are using actually belong to the person who uploaded it. In most cases, it can be assumed that they don’t.

In order to walk our talk, we have taken matters into our own hands and are getting a dose of what mainstream, professional blogs, news and big time websites deal with– it takes a lot of work and a lot of man power to make a good looking, original content site. We have a ton of admiration for professional bloggers who create both their own visual and written content. We know that we can use sites like Big Stock, but that would become untenably expensive for a little non-profit blog, not to mention, we might end up with a canned look that’s not fitting with our funky not-your-ordinary vibe.

So without further ado, we’d like to introduce Mr. Underwood. He’s a typewriter from the 50s that has been waiting around for a long, long time to feel relevant again. As a member of the team, he of course has his own sexy history of once being the disowned child of a rock star that wound up in one of our cabinets. Vindication! He’s back in style at Duct Tape and Bubblegum! We will now be relying on Mr. Underwood for most of our visual content (and our own creative wits). When we are not relying on Mr. Underwood we will be using public domain photographs provided free for use by The U.S. Library of Congress. Good luck to us!

We hope that you will continue to enjoy our style (as we bumble through getting it right) and we wish a fond farewell to the meat bag that everyone loves so much…

READING FROM THE HEAVY HITTERS IN ARTIST’S/BLOGGERS/CREATIVE RIGHTS:

* Blog Theft Article. It happens to us bloggers, too.

* Who Profits from Piracy? Not the artist. Pop-up Pirates

* The Art Law Blog – Know your rights. Nope, the media cannot just take your pics from Twitter

* Musicians, know the enemy. Nope, it’s no longer the major label

* Motion Picture Association – know your rights as a consumer and video/film maker 

* Copyright Alliance – Connecting Creators and Protecting Creative Work

* Music-Tech-Policy. Understand your creative rights at the intersection of music and technology