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The internet has opened up a new venue for Tarot readers. Many of us have personal/professional sites where we review Tarot decks and books, and place personally written Tarot articles. We often choose to illustrate those reviews/articles with scans from the decks we are reviewing. We may also choose to devote pages within our sites to discussing the individual cards, to placing Tarot lessons or to showing examples of spreads and their interpretations. All of the above require the scanning of individual Tarot cards from various decks for educational/illustrative purposes. To do so requires that we obtain written permission from the company issuing the deck. The largest dealer here in the United States is US Games. To date, they have been very good about allowing such scanning of the decks they issue if you write (by e-mail or snail mail) for permission, place a disclaimer on the page the scan is on and place a link to their site on your site. The previous policy of US Games was to grant the use of their Tarot images used for illustrative purposes in return for a disclaimer and a link to the US Games site. If someone wished to use all of the cards from any one deck for educational purposes, a one time $100 administrative fee was assessed. If the card images were built into commercial software, or delivered as automated readings by CD or via the web - US Games assessed a 10% royalty on gross sales. It has recently come to the attention of the Tarot world that after lengthy negotiations US Games and the Visionary Network have signed a contract whereby the Visionary Network has the exclusive rights to Tarot deck images that are copyrighted by US Games for use in interactive Tarot software or any other online Tarot reading capacity. One question posed on one of the larger Tarot related e-lists was: Is Visionary Tarot an arm of US Games?. The answer to that is no - Visionary Tarot is a company in it's own right with no connection to US Games other than that of a contractual nature. Visionary Tarot stated that their policy on the use of US Games copyrighted images is that in granting rights for the use of US Games Tarot deck images for software purposes, they are replacing the 10% royalty policy with a requirement that a button linking the viewer to Visionary Networks site be placed on any site that wishes to deliver computer generated, interactive readings on the web or via a CD-ROM. The problem here comes with readers that wish to do for pay readings via the internet and illustrate their readings with copyrighted Tarot images. By including the Visionary Network button they are in essence sending their prospective clients to a site that offers both free (interactive) and paid for readings, along with access to purchasing US Games decks from Visionary Networks. Visionary Networks has stated that they are not concerned with reasonable use - that their concern is with the integrity of interactive divination software. US Games has placed the following disclosure with a major Tarot e-list:
"To: Members of the Tarot Community It has come to our attention that there has been some confusion lately surrounding U.S. Games' policies on extending electronic reproduction rights permissions for tarot deck images published by U.S. Games Systems. U.S. Games Systems will provide a "reasonable use" permission fee to cover, for example, phone or email readings. Use of our images for educational purposes, on-line review of decks or to advertise or promote specific decks will be free of charge, however, a credit attribution and link to our site is required. We are pleased to provide this service to the tarot community and thank you for your continued support. For further information on your specific reproduction requests, please contact bbensaid@usgamesinc Note: Please feel free to forward to other newsgroups."
February 2001
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