Just got this from a friend via E-mail, take a look


To artists, friends of artists and anyone who ever longed to be an artist,

There is a piece of legislation pending in both the House and the Senate (Bill H.R. 5889 and Bill S. 2913) known as The Orphan Works Act of 2008. Despite its seemingly laudable ends, this bill needs to be opposed and defeated. And we need to do this immediately! Here's
why:

1. It changes the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act (enacted in 1978), and makes it virtually impossible for artists to protect their work. It basically allows anyone to use a design without the copyright holder's permission.

2. It requires artists to attempt to protect their work by
registering it with a digital data base system (presumably for a fee, in addition to the copyright filing fee)-when no such system exists!

3. It eliminates statutory damages wherever an infringer can successfully claim an orphan works defense, thus eliminating the only tool the law provides to prevent deliberate infringement.

4. It allows for an infringer to create-and copyright-a derivative work from the original design.

The following was posted by Stella on "The Art of Licensing" Yahoo group and sums up the consequences if this bill passes:

"If we do not stop BOTH Orphan Works Bills NOW-
It does not matter that you created it.
It does not matter that you have a copyright mark on it.
It does not matter that it is registered in the Library of Congress. It does not matter that you signed it. It does not matter that you put a big fat watermark across it. It does not matter that you put digital signatures on it. It does not matter if you get a lawyer- you will get a pittance determined by the offending company and no reimbursement for legal fees. It does not matter even if you do as they demand and pay to register it in the new registries that they will form - there is no real punishment for using your work for profit. It does not matter that you do not want your image used on a product or to promote an agenda. They can even sell your prints and make money!"

Or to put it another way, imagine if someone walked down the street and came upon a legally parked vehicle. If in the mind of that person, they could not easily determine to whom the vehicle belonged, would they have the right to drive it away and use it for whatever they saw fit to use it for? Obviously any sane person would think this action would be absurd. This is the situation we are facing with this legislation.

If you would like additional information on the potential impact of this legislation, you can learn more by:

Reviewing the submission to the House by the Illustrator's Partnership [link]
searchterm=00261

Listening to Brad Holland's informative webcast: [link]

Also by visiting the following sites: [link]
[link]


If these bills pass, Artists May Lose All the Rights to Every Piece of Art They Have Ever Created! The issue is about weakening copyright protections for artists and, interestingly enough, Microsoft and Google are behind the bill.

There are differences between the two bills and they both need to be opposed. You can do these by doing the following:

Write/email/fax/call your Reps and Senators and state your fervent opposition to this legislation. (Refer to Bill H.R. 5889 when writing a House Rep and to Bill S. 2913 when writing a Senator.)

If need be, go to the following sites for contact info for your state's officials: [link]
[link]
[link]


Faxes work better than e-mails....but everything helps.

The Orphan Works Act of 2008 is hugely critical to the possible future careers of artists everywhere and it must be opposed. The vote on the bill is coming up very shortly and I encourage every one of you to write/fax/email/call your representatives and beseech them not to vote for this bill.

Time is of the essence. This legislation appears to be scheduled for fast-tracking. Please act today!

Please forward this message to anyone who can help us on this matter or might be effected by it. And thank you for your time