Artspan News

We continue to focus a lot of our resources on optimizing the site for various key search terms. For example, contemporary art. This is an extremely competitive term: a search on Google returns 141 million results. We are making progress. We are no. 1 on both MSN and Ask.com, #19 on Yahoo and in the top 40 on Google (up from #90 in the last two months). I am referring here of course to the organic (non-pay) listings. That's what 80% of people click on when they see the results page. We are not neglecting our photographers. We have reached #2 on Google for photographer websites (we continue as #1 for artists websites). Our SEO efforts are central to building traffic to your sites.

We have recently received several reports from members of one Billy Cardozo, allegedly from Spain, who emailed some members via their contact page. Here is one example (these are shown as received with typos):

My name is Billy Cardozo, i am from Spain.I am also an ardent lover of arts. I travel a lot for artistic occasion. I also collect and buy artworks which im planning on refurblishing my new house, I am in urgent need of your artworks and i would like to know if you are willing to sell to me i saw your work which i am interested in, i am ready to buy it,if you are interested, i will be remitting payment to you via paypal, so i suggest you set up one for this transaction soon or if you have one already, i will be awaiting your blissful reply to my email address. Which is: cardozo_arts3@yahoo.es

When one member asked for more information, this was the reply :

Thanks for the response back to me. I am interested in the (Name of artwork) 30" x 24". So please get back to me with the shipping cost and also your paypal email address so that the funds can be transferred asap. I will also like to notify you that my shipping agent will be coming to pick the art work for me. So which means that i will make an excess amount of money transferred into your paypal account. So all you will need do is as soon as you get the funds, you are to deduct the cost for your artwork and send the rest to my shipping agent address via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER. I await your reply soon.

The new twist comes in with the offer to remit payment via Paypal. We have a support request in with Paypal to investigate how this would be possible. Since Paypal works via bank acounts, it is likely that the buyer's method of payment would pass initial muster and then later turn up as fraudulent.

The tip-offs are the now all-too-familiar shipping agent and the excess funds that the buyer wants the seller to send via Western Union.

There have also been reports of one Richard Hudson looking to furnish his new home in the UK.

I visited your site and i saw these fascinating artworks and i found some interest in :- 1. (Name of artwork) So , i will like to buy them for our new house in United Kingdom. I must say you really doing a great job ,I have already contacted a shipping company that will be shipping them along with our other house decorations. Our shipping company will Pick-Up these items once i pay you . I will be paying you with a Certified Check which will be easily cashed at your bank, Please let me know your mind about this sales and tell the the price for each ? I will be looking forward to your response on how to proceed.

Once again, note the reference to a shipping company and certified check. Also, the email composition is somewhat lacking in grammar and punctuation.

Regrettably, anyone with a web presence and items for sale are targets for these schemes, not just us artists. Please remember to NEVER send your artwork until the check clears the bank of origin (not just your bank) and if you receive a check from someone, have your bank verify its authenticity before releasing any funds and/or artwork to anyone.

A few words from Mariana who is our designer and is working on new versions of the individual websites:

I am developing several new website designs which will be available in a variety of color schemes. All of the new designs will include a “home” page, which will contain 1 – 3 images and text. Right now the home page is the first gallery page. The gallery pages will be under a new “Gallery” page in the new versions, and this “Gallery” will be subdivided into categories if you choose. For example, if you are a painter your “home” page might include images of your work or a photo of yourself and your “gallery page could be divided into “Figurative”, “Still Life” and “Landscape.” Many of the new versions will have the thumbnails and one larger image visible on the same page. There will also be a design with many thumbnails (20-30) visible on one page, which might be useful to some of our members with a greater body of work or to jewelers or others.

Most importantly, the new versions will focus on simplicity, easy navigation and an aesthetic that will complement the variety of your artwork. As we develop more variations and colors we will make them available to you. If you have any thoughts you would like to contribute please send me an email at design@artspan.com

We took the Artspan Forums down last month due to an onslaught of spam and scam messages. How many handbag replicas can one person need? We are going to relaunch the Forums as part of the new site design. The Forums are a great place to involve and expand and our artist community. There will be a variety of lists to post on and member suggestions for list topics are welcome.

The Forums will be key in increasing Artspan's visibility to search engines and play a big part in bringing more traffic.

We have had a fair number of questions about copyright. Copyright in the U.S. is pretty simple. It's the legal and exclusive right of the creator of an original work to control the copying of that work. It grants the artist exclusive rights to reproduce his or her artwork, produce derivative artwork, sell, lease or assign such rights or display the work publicly.

Copyright protects the artist's right to benefit from his work and his right to control how the work is used. Copyright law provides immediate and automatic protection once the work is completed. You don't have to register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office, though if you do, you will have an additional layer of protection and can more easily bring suit. You can also put a copyright symbol on the work which will strengthen protection by warning people, but this is really not necessary. The Berne Convention (1989) specifies that work is protected whether or not it has a notice on it.

If someone does use your work and reproduces more than 10 copies with a value of more than $2500.00, U.S. law makes that use a felony. An exception is “Fair Use” which allows copyrighted works to be used for purposes such as education, research, and news reporting.

How this works in the Internet age: In 1998, the U.S. Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, written to update copyright law for electronic commerce. Visitor s to your site are not allowed to print out reproductions of your work

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