In a message dated 5/1/2006 10:52:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
If there is a loophole it is not a limited edition. It is not a matter 
of legality it is a matter of ethics. The only legal recourse your 
buyers would have in such a case is to sue you for breach of contract.

The only ethical way of doing a limited edition is to make your print 
run, then destroy the masters. That way your buyers can be at least 
assured that any future print has to be a reproduction of one of the 
originals, and thus not worth as much. Please note that you can do a run 
of 100, sell 10 of them, and still have 90 squirreled away in a box to 
sell in the future.

Interestingly anything produced by me prior to 1987 is now a limited 
edition because all masters and copies were destroyed by fire. I have 
chosen not to use my old "Rit" logo signature on anything produced since 
then as well. However, I am not aware of any particular market for Tom 
Rittenhouse originals.

"Thomas Arthur Rittenhouse, Photography for Advertising and 
Illustration" never happened either <SIGH>. Thus go the best laid plans 
of mice and men... Too many dreams, not enough sticktoitness.

graywolf
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Well, that's always what I've sort of understood. If you do a limited edition 
of 100, no fair reissuing it 20 years later with another edition of 10 or 
something. If not illegal, unethical.

But I am pretty damn sure people don't have to destroy the master. The 
artist/photographer still retains rights to their "original." Maybe with old 
woodcuts or silk screens or something people once did that. Don't know.

Things must have changed a little with the times, though.

And actually this is an interesting topic. There should be a consensus in the 
art world to what limited edition now means. Around somewhere. And maybe 
digital is changing that definition a tad. Maybe not.

Marnie aka Doe :-)

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