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Thread: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    Whittier, CA
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    Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    Here's what's happening:
    The US government, as well as a few
    countries in Europe are trying to pass
    legislation that requires all artists of any
    kind (artists, designers, musicians,
    writers, filmakers) to register their
    creations with private registries for a fee.

    If your creations are not registered, they
    become "Orphaned Works," which
    means basically that they have no
    copyright and become public domain--
    meaning that **anyone can sell or
    distribute them without the original artist
    seeing any income whatsoever.**

    Read more about it here:
    http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=3605
    If the Orphan Works legislation passes,
    you and I and all creatives will lose
    virtually all the rights to not only our
    future work but to everything we've
    created over the past 34 years, unless
    we register it with the new, untested and
    privately run (by the friends and cronies
    of the U.S. government) registries.

    Even then, there is no guarantee that
    someone wishing to steal your personal
    creations won't successfully call your
    work an orphan work, and then legally
    use it for free.

    In short, if Congress passes this law,
    YOU WILL LOSE THE RIGHT TO MAKE
    MONEY FROM YOUR OWN
    CREATIONS!

    Sign a petition against this act:
    http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...works-act.html

    Listen to this interview with Brad Holland: http://www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com/orphan.html

    This a link with the contact information for
    the president and all US senators,
    representatives, state governors and
    legislators;
    http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

    As beings who express ourselves in
    creating and/or enjoy others' expressions,
    we MUST put a stop to this immediately, or
    possibly lose all rights to our own works!

    Thanks for standing up for your rights!

  2. #2
    matthew blais's Avatar
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    746

    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    Signed.
    Another utterly ridiculous governmental attempt to raise revenue.
    "I invent nothing, I rediscover"
    August Rodin

    My Now old Photo Site

  3. #3
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    Signed.

    I don't think the government is trying to generate revenue, but rather the clients of the lobbyists promoting the bill.

  4. #4

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    Lakewood, CO
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    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    Domenico,

    This is the second time I've seen reference to this. I would like to send a letter to my representative/senator, but I've not seen a reference to a particular bill.

    H. R. 5439 came up as one bill addressing Orphan Works, but I'm not certain that it was signed into law and it doesn't address 3rd party copyright registries. HR 6052 included the wording from HR 5439 (I think word for word). But it doesn't seem like this article references HR 6052 or HR 5439.

  5. #5

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    2,588

    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    The irony is that the big corporations like Disney have been pushing to strengthen copyright laws that favor them (extending copyright protection period to 95 years!) and now this law comes along that makes it easier to take and use unregistered coprighted works (and I bet you that DIsney has teams of lawyers who register their copyrights so it is the "little guy" who ends up getting screwed.)

    Worse yet, this new law would have retroactive effect: it would apply to works that you created in the past.

    I guess this really drives home the point: you MUST register your copyrighted works. Unregistered copyrighted works are not really protected. Or, at the very very least, make sure that your copyright statement appears on the photograph somewhere.

    Still, not too late to file for copyright protections today.
    And, the Orphan works law is supposed to have measures which requires a good faith search for the original creator, and reasonable attribution. How well these exceptions will work is yet to be determined.

  6. #6
    Paul Cocklin
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    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    signed.

  7. #7
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    A less hysterical analysis of the situation from ASMP:
    http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/orphan_update.php

  8. #8

    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    signed.

  9. #9

    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    Signed with the following comment.

    Laws should be created to protect the rights of ALL citizens, not just those who can afford it.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    2,588

    Re: Orphaned Art legislation: Important!!

    Incidentally, this is happening at a time when you will soon be able to register your copyrights in the US over the internet, so no more need to send copies using mail & pay with checks -- thus making it easier to register your work and not worry about it becoming an orphan in the first place.

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