The "Orphan Works Bill" is a proposed bill that, if passed by Congress, will strip every artist of their copyright protection. It was brought to my attention by it's spread in journals here at DA.

This bill states that any and all non-registered art will be "orphaned," or be without ownership, under law. This means that anything we draw, whether it be beautiful, fully finished peices in our galleries or even so much as doodles or sketches, does not belong to us and can be used by anyone for any profit.

In short, this bill is trying to make Art Theft legal.

If passed, this bill will allow any individual or company to use an artist's own creation as means of their own profit, without credit or pay to the author of the work. For example, if I draw a design of my own and post it here on DA, or anywhere for that matter, someone (whether it be some entrepreneur or an employee of a company) can simply take that design and use it as his or her own, making profits off of a work that I created.

This not only allows theives to mask themselves with our passionate creativity, this also costs us all of our funds that WE deserve for our creativity and our long hours of work. The main reason behind the proposition of this bill is money. To register a copyright costs around $35 to $45 for a single peice, and it still does not gaurantee that your copyright won't be infringed.

There is currently a petition online for people to sign that is against this bill, and I heavely urge all of you to sign it.
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BEFORE YOU SIGN, I urge you to please take this issue calmly. This bill has apparently been around before, but opposers are apparently more heated this time around. Please take this issue maturally and responsibly, but at the same time let's not let them easily pass this bill.

To get a more clear idea of what the "Orphan Works Bill" is about, please listen to this interview with Brad Holland of Illustrator's Partnership... [link]