It never ceases to amaze me how quick DA people are to panic without properly investigating a subject. Sheep are less likely to trample each other into the ground during a thunderstorm.

I have seen a rash of journals and forum posts on this subject all of a sudden but have yet to find a single one that is reasonable or accurate or based on anything other than some dude's stupid blog. I hope this article will help allay some fears.

Here is an article from Duke University Center for Copyright Law. [link]

Here is an article from the American Library Association [link]

Here is a report form the Copyright Office on the subject [link] 207 pages long but at least read some of it)

This bill is intended to give people the right to use copyrighted materials (artwork, books and film) after the original creator is dead or cannot be located after a reasonable search has been conducted, it is not intended to allow anyone to steal copyrighted material from living artists, and there has been a large amount of discussion in the appropriate circles about this already. In the case of film the proposed change to the copyright law is in the interest of preserving old films that are under risk of "disintegrating" as one article put it. It is also not a new issue by any means, you may notice that this discussion has been going on since 2005.

Vigilance is definitely in order to ensure that the wording of the bill does not allow for the theft of materials from living and locatable artists, but that should not be mistaken with the intent of the bill.