USA to Legalize Art Theft
The current May 17, 2008 U. S. Senate version of the “Orphan Works” legislation is a nightmare for artists.
Every country in the world currently recognizes an artist’s rights to their own work, with or without a formal copyright; all you need to do in the case of a dispute is prove that you did it first.
Leave it to the Legislative Branch of the USA Federal Government to attempt to pass a law requiring an artist to pay a fee to a Corporation in order to own something that already belongs to them!
Can you imagine the revenue at $5 a pop? It boggles the mind. King George never had it so good.
This is something that every artist in the USA must take action against. Read about it here and here
Here’s a draft of a letter concerned artists can send to their U.S. Senators:
Dear Senator __,
I am one of your constituents, a professional artist. It is crucial to my livelihood that you oppose the “Orphan Works” bill, H.R. 5889, in its current form. If this bill’s current language becomes law, it would permit, and even encourage, wide-scale infringements of my copyrighted artworks while depriving me of many of the protections currently available to me under the Copyright Act, including the right to ask the courts to award statutory damages and attorneys’ fees. In the publication world, the reality is that most artworks will easily become considered orphaned, depriving me of a significant part of my income.
I urge you to oppose this bill unless and until it is amended to contain at least the minimum provisions that are critical to protect artists, including but not limited to a notice of use that must be filed before the use is made, upon penalty of losing eligibility to claim orphan work status for failure to file the notice; an archive of the notices, to be maintained by the Copyright Office or an approved third party; and other protections that appear in the current (May 15, 2008) language of H.R. 5889.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide you with any additional information. Thank you for your time. I hope that you will take the necessary actions to protect my interests and prevent the passage of this bill until it is amended to be fair and reasonable to all parties.
Respectfully yours,
____
Here is a web site that makes it easy to find contact information for your U.S. Senators.
H M Bascom
I have been fighting against this terrible legislation. Thank you for adding your voice to those who oppose the legalized theft of our work.
nexus7
I am appalled by this bill and I wonder how it will impace individuals who do not live in the USA, but maybe belong to USA-based sites.
Is there a form that the American government will recognise for people who do not live on American soil and who are not American?
justjason
ORPHAN WORKS ACT?!!!!
?
Pro Vs. Con: PROGRESS Vs. CONGRESS…. Congress RIGHT NOW!!!????This Bill is designed to strip YOUR Rights to your ART AWAY from YOU!!!!!! Please help speak out against this HORRIBLE IDEA…please goto the link below to oppose this BILL..it takes 2 minutes… http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/
you can also listen to Illustrator Brad Hollands interview about this here…
http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan/orphan_works_information.mp3
PLEASE HELP STOP THE OPPOSITION TO FREE EXPRESSION!!!
PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS TO YOUR CREATIONS NOW!!!
noyou
yesme
Carson Collins
Excellent! Here’s the link in active form, for those who don’t want to go through the onerous toil of cutting, opening a new window, and pasting the url ; – )
Take Action: Don’t Let Congress Orphan Your Work
FAIRIEWOMAN1
Have you heard any more on this? I sent letters too, at the time it was in the house. The response from Obama’s office is that the bill is actually a good thing and meant to protect artists, but they were still studying it. Yeah, right.
Carson Collins
On September 27, in a cynical move, the sponsors of the Senate Orphan Works Act passed their controversial bill by an underhanded practice known as ‘hotlining’.
Here’s what you need to know and here’s what you can do…….
FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP: Orphan Works: Risking Our Nation’s Copyright Wealth The Senate has just passed their version of the Orphan Works Bill. Now we must try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill and adopting the Senate version. We’ve supplied a special letter for this purpose. PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS TONIGHT. USE THIS LINK
Orphan Works Opposition: Plan B
With lawmakers scrambling to raise 700 billion dollars to bail out businesses that are “too big to fail,” the Senate passed a bill that would force small copyright holders to subsidize big internet interests such as Google, which has already said it plans to use millions of the images this bill will orphan.
With the meltdown on Wall Street, this is no time for Congress to concentrate our nation’s copyright wealth in the hands of a few privately owned corporate databases. The contents of these databases would be more valuable than secure banking information. Yet this bill would compel creators to risk their own intellectual property to supply content to these corporate business models. That means it would be our assets at risk in the event of their failure or mismanagement.
As David Rhodes, President of the School of Visual Arts has said, the Orphan Works bill would socialize the expense of copyright protection while privatizing the profit of creative endeavors. Copyright owners neither want nor need this legislation. It will do great harm to small businesses. We already have a banking crisis. Congress should not lay the groundwork for a copyright crisis.
Written by Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Illustrators’ Partnership
NOW FOR PLAN B We MUST try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill (HR5889) and adopting the Senate version.
PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS TODAY. If you’ve done it before, do it again!
It takes only a minute to use our new special letter. Click on this LINK , enter your zip code, and take the next steps.
For ongoing developments, go to the Illustrators’ Partnership Orphan Works blog
Over 70 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses.
The Capwiz site is open to professional creators and any member of the image-making public. International artists will find a special link, with a sample letter and instructions as to whom to write.
If you wish to be added to the mailing list, email : illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com Place “Add Name” in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.
Please post or forward this information to any interested party.