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Listen to this interview; it's pretty important.

Don't let the Orphan Bill Pass, or you will lose rights to your work as artists and writers!

Basically, all the work that you do, all the copyrights on it will be VOID.
Quote, "if Congress passes this law, you will lose the right to make money from your own creations! Our government is now working against us by allowing our own citizens to steal your creative works" (Simon, Mark). Hell, even if you're not trying to make money from it, your creative works can legally be stolen.

Protect your rights and let your voice be heard. If we do nothing, the bill will be passed by this summer.

Just in case you feel especially moved and want to contact Congress

Is anyone else just a wee bit miffed about this?

Well, that wasn't very uplifting…should I go set myself on fire now?



"We are not saying you have to register…but anyone can use your creations if you don't register."


This is another Fine example of Academic Marxists working towards a better tomorrow…for the whole world.

PANIC BUTTON RESET:

There is currently NO Orphan Works Bill before Congress. The 2006 version died in committee. There is currently an effort being made to draft a new one. Because it hasn't been drafted yet, there's no way of knowing whether or not the new version will infringe on anyone's rights.

The original version, however, did not: even if an infringer conducted a “reasonable search” and failed to find contact information for the copyright owner of a work, they were still liable to the copyright owner for compensation even if the work was used as not-for-profit. Copyrights were neither surrendered or transferred by any means under the original bill, nor did registration of individual works become a requirement for protecting those rights.

Long and short of it: if someone pirated your work for, say, a t-shirt, and you found out about it, then at minimum they have to compensate you for use of your work, even if they fall under the Act's protections. If they tried to jerk you around, they lost those protections and became liable for statutory damages as per normal. If they couldn't prove through pre-existing documentation that they really did try to find you through reasonable means, they lost protections; that means if, say, a simple websearch on your work turns up your name and contact info, they lose.

Best as I can tell, the author of the “expose” piece either didn't bother to read the bill or skimmed through it while looking for things to take out of context.

You may all resume breathing normally now…at least, until the next round of drama.

Calbeck
PANIC BUTTON RESET:

Does no one read at all?

All the current information is here: http://orphanworks.blogspot.com/ and here: http://judiciary.house.gov/oversight.aspx?ID=427

No opinion either way. Just the actual REAL info. They ARE attempting to revive it and going through the process. Enough of this contrarianism disguised as fake “level-headedness”.
————–

Calbeck. Read some of the testimonies from the industry professionals on the U.S government website. The “search” idea is currently useless, because people will be searching for images they do NOT have the creator's name and details of. It is almost impossible to find the real owner in that way for the majority of imagery out there with no attribution.

The Illustrator's Partnership, a group dedicated to protecting the artist, has set up an online site for visual artists to e-mail their Senators and Representatives with one click.


This is very quick and convenient to use. Simply select the letter you wish to send, indicate your location and click:



http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

This is ridiculous. I see WHY it's getting passed, but they obviously haven't considered the side effects on artists who can't pay to get every page of every comic they do copyrighted. They should try to protect the copyright holders.

I hope if and when it does pass it gets struck down by a court after a while.

ccs1989
This is ridiculous. I see WHY it's getting passed, but they obviously haven't considered the side effects on artists who can't pay to get every page of every comic they do copyrighted. They should try to protect the copyright holders.

I hope if and when it does pass it gets struck down by a court after a while.

It hasn't been getting passed. In fact, the last, what, 3 attempts failed?

Here is the Democrat lead congress doing what it does best. I am not sure why any of you are surprised.

jmt
Here is the Democrat lead congress doing what it does best. I am not sure why any of you are surprised.

Yeah. Like a republican majority congress and senate did better. This isn't about political parties, it's about ALL politicians being pussies when it comes to corporations.

And if you don't think the republicans aren't in the pockets of the corporations AS WELL AS democrats, you haven't been paying attention.

SpANG
ALL politicians being pussies when it comes to Money.

Fix'd