Say "NO!" to the Orphan Works Act Petition

Author: Lisa Weber
Word Count: 390
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Say "NO!" to the Orphan Works Act Petition

This is a vital issue that will pass on January 1, 2009 if we the artists do not stand up for our rights. Please read this for more details and where to go to sign the online electronic petition.

Say "NO!" to the Orphan Works Act Petition belongs to the following groups:

3D Animals Abound, African Art and Photography, AW Welcome Center, Back In Black ( sorry~NO PHOTOGRAPHY), Big Cats, Classic Cars Worldwide, Colour Me Vibrant Red!, EF Welcome Center, Green!, In the Pink, Love & Romance , Religious Art & Photography, The Birds, Underwater & Sealife (Limit 2 Per Day) and Waterfowl

Well folks I was going to setup a petition myself and hand deliver it to U.S. House of Reps but i did manage to find one already started!
So please sign the petition, so far they have 9765 signatures, personally Id love to see 2.2 million signatures to really stick it to these jerks who think they can get away with passing this ACT January 2009. I have also posted this to all the forums of sites I belong to, to help get this message out, please post this message to any sites you belong to as well. The more who know and understand it, the better chance we have of getting through to our govt. and letting them know we wont stand for this at all! Just click on the banner below to be taken diredtly to the online electronic petition.

Sign The Petition

This was my comment for them to read, its important for you to add a statement/comment, so they understand why we the artists find this apalling!
Comment: “I refuse to give up my works to people who see this as a way to profit off of others hard work and devotion. To allow this is to rob us of income and the desire to create. Imagine a WWW without imagery, that is what will happen because artists will refuse to post online out of fear of theft. This doesnt just effect us but also other related business’s (like art supply, model designers, art selling companies) without us, they are no more too! VOTE NO on this ACT Passing PLEASE!”

Or you can also write to your congress-person in the U.S. House of Representatives directly go to :

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

They include an email & a physical address for your indivdual area of residence.

Also here’s some more links explaining this whole issue if youre still unaware of the Orphan Works Act:

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Orphan_works_legislation

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~csundt/copyweb/

Thanks
Lisa

P.S. Thanks Rose for starting this petition.

Please let us know you signed here, so others will too!

mlgkats

yes i have done this already , thank you
Patricia Anne ...

Ok I don’t usely alou for this sort of thing in Fan Frenzy, but I will just this once on this issue
Melissa Hintz

I signed. Thank you for posting this. So, then we as portrait photographers would have to copyright every person? That is crappy! All they would have to do is wait…
Sandra Chung

Read about it yesterday (different forum, and website) signed petition today. I find it suspicious that Corbis, a company owned by Bill Gates, is one of the groups really pushing for this to be made law.
webbie

OK ..I Just signed it…hope it a fake..but if not…we had our say.
MuscularTeeth

ive signed.
i personally think this is EXACTLY what nazi germany or Stalinist soviet union would have done had they survived..
this is so totally EVIL, so totally mind boggling stupid, the only comparison i can make is ‘1984’ – all expression is to be systematically removed – with the public somehow expected to believe its for their own good.

again its friggin evil.
Lisa Weber

Thats correct Melissa, thats why i feel its essential to voice this petition to all art sites, especially those who sell art, and those business’s that rely on us as artists/photographers. I really would like to make an effort to get all art sites and business related companies online to have a worldwide shut down so to speak for 24 hours to show America what it would be like to have zero imagery online. People dont realise how much effect visual aids can boost a site’s success or failure, than just text on the WWW. Granted it would be a major undertaking to accomplish that, but they could post a statement that 24 hour period saying something like:

“We are banning, all imagery & advertising for the next 24 hours to show the people what it would be like without online imagery and business’s who use imagery to sell their products, we are here only to show worldwide protest against the “Orphan Works Act” passing the U.S. House of Representatives, Please following the click below to read about the truth if the Orphan Works Act passes then follow the second link to sign our petition in agreement with our goal to show the U.S. House of Represaentatives we will not tolerate our rights being dispose of to comgloberments who have agendas to violate artists rights, and allowing theft to be a legitmate way to gain profit.” end

Do you think people would do it? a 24 hour shut down?
let me know your thoughts on this idea, cause im willing to sacifrice my time to protect myself, artists alike and related business to stop this apalling law passing.

Maybe then it would be News worthy, even OPRAH might step in! LOL
Patricia Anne ...

I have just signed. EASY to do.
Tainia Finlay

I have just signed, thank you.
Rosina Lamberti

I signed. Thank you for posting this.
saleire

8300…...signed it….thank you for bringing this to our notice. What on earth are they thinking….we should be able to do what we want with our own art….this is crazy.
Angel Ortiz

make sure the $ gets to the orphans.
Marie Sharp

Thank you for providing this information. I just signed.
darkestartist

thanks for the information. signed.
Stormygirl

Thanks for the message.. I signed.
Shads

This is really scarry, apparently it stretched right across to your home photos, home videos, doodles on paper, every peice of visual art, unregistered will be up for grabs. Puts me off taking photos.

Thanks for alerting us to this.
WanderingAuthor

I just signed. I’m a writer – it affects us, too. Some jerk copies a story or poem, then a big corporation “can’t find” me… GRRRR…. So if you try to get sites to shut down for 24 hours, have them take creative writing down, too. If I think that thing might pass, I know I’m pulling a lot of posts from my blog, and rethinking what I might post there.

Much as I despise Bill Gates (as a frustrated Windows victim), he is not the only one on this: all the big corporations want it to be much easier to acquire images for their use and profit, and probably writing as well. They can afford big lawyers, so they can spin excuses that they thought the work was orphaned, and we won’t be able to fight them off.
WanderingAuthor

I just posted about this on my blog
I didn’t bother mentioning the petition because I’ve been told by those “in the know” online petitions don’t impress politicians easily; you’d need millions of signatures to get their attention, and then the corporate types would complain they were forged. But feel free, any of you, to copy my post or my ideas. I want this stopped as much as any of you.
Lisa Weber

Please do add link re: the petition

BECAUSE its our goal to get millions of signatures, to make it very possible to see this as a viable action. Also the petition does record ones isp, and will not except multi signatures from ppl. although im sure their are hackers that can beat the system. Now i do have a link for those that wish to send a letter to their congressperson directy and have attached a standard letter(s) link that you can use if you havent the time to write it in your own words.

Find your Representative

Standard letters available

Again some more links to read the exact act/bill NOW:

The Orphan Works Act of 2008 Bill # H.R.5889

The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 Bill # S.2913
CATNIPMEOW

Thanks Lisa I had not heard of this…......thats one more signature :)
Appreciate the heads up