CBLDF Launches Corporate Membership Fund
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on May 23, 2006 Sign up now!
by Calvin Reid, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 5/23/2006
As The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund enters its 20th year monitoring the First Amendment Rights of comics retailers and artists, the organization has launched a corporate membership program to fund CBLDF's much expanded scope of services and legal challenges.
In an interview held during BookExpo, CBLDF executive director Charles Brownstein outlined the new program and announced its first five members—DC Comics, Quebecor, Wizard, Diamond Comics Distribution and Dark Horse Books. Each member of the program donates $5000 to CBLDF.
"This is a serious show of force from the publishing community to defend the rights of retailers," says Brownstein. He pointed to the ongoing prosecution of comics retailer Gordon Lee in Rome, Ga. The CBLDF has spent about $60,000 defending Lee. "Publishers are putting their money where their mouths are," says Brownstein of the new corporate program. "The CBLDF is as strong as we've ever been as an organization, but we're also in turbulent times with new challenges and costs."
The CBLDF was founded out of the prescience and early fundraising efforts of former Kitchen Sink Press publisher Denis Kitchen. Brownstein emphasized that the organization's scope has grown since its beginning, requiring a new level of financial commitment from the industry. "Comics are becoming much more sophisticated. Retailers have to sell material that ranges from Dragonball Z to Love & Rockets. If publishers want retailers to carry serious material, retailers need to know they have the backing of the comics industry," said Brownstein.
The CBLDF is also a member of the Media Coalition, an association of 12 free speech groups representing a variety entertainment and media industries—including books, videogames, software, periodicals, music and more—charged with protecting the rights of American's access to First Amendment protected materials. Brownstein emphasized that as a member of the Media Coalition, the CBLDF has joined with coalition members like the Association of American Publishers and The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.
"We've worked together to challenge bad Internet legislation and fight videogame censorship," he said. "We can share a pool of knowledge to protect the rights of all media-related industries."
