http://forums.cgsociety.org/sh owthread.php?threadid=629108&u tm_medium=plugblock&utm_source =cgtalk

URGENT: Orphan Works Passed in Senate / Stop it in the House FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Orphan Works: Risking Our Nation's Copyright Wealth ***The Senate has just passed their version of the Orphan Works Bill***

Now we must try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill and adopting the Senate version. We've supplied a special letter for this purpose.

PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS TONIGHT!!!

USE THIS LINK http://capwiz.com/illustrators partnership/issues/alert/?aler tid=11980321

Harry for more detailed information on what this law puts at risk read this link.

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?l type=pageone&article_no=3605&p age=1

Personal Copyright to Art and Music are at stake. The Shock Doctrine is in effect. Bill Gates is behind it. Used to be you made something, you published it, and it was protected. You didn't have to register it to have exclusive copyright powers over it. It was your work.

If this law passes that will change!

You would have to register your Art and Music through a private registrie.

No more exclusive right to copyright! This is bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Spider-Man comic artist Alex Saviuk is also concerned about the loss of copyright protection. "When I found out all the negative aspects of the new legislation, it would almost behoove us to want to do something else for a living," says Saviuk. "If we would have to register with all the different companies, we would never be able to make a living." "It would be impossible for me to register all my art," continues Saviuk. "It would put me out of business."

Please Harry for the love of all thing Creative and the Laws that previously protected those who Create. Please, Post this on your site with a link to Capwiz. So your viewers can send out automated letters to their Elected Officials to tell the House Judiciary Not To Pass this Bill! .

Thanks"

Well guess what...

http://tinyurl.com/4trme5

Thats What!!!! You have no idea what this means, and how Artist will get fucked over even if they sue someone who uses something they made without permission. I will end this with a qoute from a poster in the Wire Post on this Topic

"Well at least some good came out of the economic crisis. The "Orphan Works Act" was a terrible piece of legislation that would have only benefited media corporations, who were the most likely ones to own and run the commercial "registration" databases, where they could have charged artists and writers a recurring subscription fee to KEEP work registered, or the media companies could register a creator's work before the creator and then guess who "owns" it? And anyone who wanted to claim a work was orphaned would probably only have had to look in those commercial databases to satisfy the "reasonable effort" to find the copyright holder - effectively and automatically orphaning any works NOT registered in those databases, and offering the actual copyright holder no legal remedies against the infringement (by re-defining it as "fair use"). Make no mistake, this was an attempt by the big media conglomerates to make a massive rights grab, and to effectively privatize the US Copyright Office."

Thanks AICN!!!!!!!

In addition to the controversial bailout bill, the Senate has found time to pass the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008. An orphan work is a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder and the bill is intended to.

The bill, in addition to providing a limitation on judicial remedies in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works, spells out what is considered a "diligent effort" to search for and contact a rights holder. It also limits penalties if an infringer can prove they made that diligent effort to contact the person who owns the copyright.

One of the problems with the Act (besides the way it was hotlined through the Senate) is that while it suggests some methods of what a diligent effort entails, it leaves it up to the Copyright Office to draft the actual practices. Even then, they are only recommended practices.

This does not provide a means to protect the artist. Instead, it creates a way for people to circumvent paying for creative work. There is a similar House bill that would require infringers to file with the Copyright Office when they intend to use an orphan work. This, at least, would encourage them to do their do diligence ahead of time, instead of being pushed to do so after the fact.

What does this mean for photographers? We should take extra care to make sure that photos don't fall into orphan status. This is a critical issue in a digital world, where it is too easy for people to grab other people's copyright work. We need to be careful about how we distribute photos. Now, we not only need to make sure that shots are accessible, but the photographer has to be just as accessible and linked to the photo.

Define Hotlining: "With the House rules suspended, due to the Wall Street Fiscal Crisis, if a bill gets out on the floor, as little at 2 people can vote on the bill and it will pass. Then since it's the same bill as the Senate, it can go right to the president's desk for signature bypassing a joint House/Senate committee to make it into one bill" Read "The Shock Doctrine" or at least the wiki info on it this shit was a calculated strike. AND IT FUCKING PASSED!!!!!! GODDAMN I'M MAD AND SAD FOR ALL ARTIST !!!!!!

Photographer, atrists, musicians, writers and crafters are mostly small business owners and this bill will remove their livelihood by putting a huge financial burden on them to maintain ownership of their own property.

Most artist survive on the sale of their work and are incapable of paying such fee's to do this. The Berne Convention, made copyrights for such works automatic without a notice- Well not anymore. This will affect so many creative outlets- From struggling Artists to companies like Marvel Comics.

I'm looking forward to Ember, btw; taking my 13 year old tonight.