Attached Link: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605

Very frightening!  If you didn't think that 'big business' owned the United States of America previously, welcome to the new nation, United Businesses for Profit.

This legislation is ludicrous.  I feel the ever-crushing heel of the illuminati (i.e.: the wealthy and powerful) crunching down harder on the populace to fleece them of rights and earnings.  At this time yet - during a definite recession which might turn into a depression if things keep going south.  Guillotine makers prepare thyselves... ;)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2734530

Oh, I don't know if I like that!

While I think the whole copyright thing has gone way over the top and needs to be reigned in a bit, I don't like the sound of "can't reasonably find you" = orphaned and lost rights, either. Surely there must be some middle ground!?

if they steal my stuff, they're more desperate than I thought..;) but there are some top-quality artists here, they do need protection. No one says how much it is to register, or how it works....

Quote - Oh, I don't know if I like that!

While I think the whole copyright thing has gone way over the top and needs to be reigned in a bit, I don't like the sound of "can't reasonably find you" = orphaned and lost rights, either. Surely there must be some middle ground!?

"Cant reasonably find you"... wasnt that in the ArtZone Gallery Terms of Agreement until people told DAZ to change it?

I swear, there are times when I'm almost happy to be seeing my twilight years coming into focus. I'm in my mid 50s, and the way all of this has so radically changed -- and not for the better, I might add -- in the last twenty years makes me wonder if there's any hope whatsoever for this little mudball of ours.

Wouldn't this make these and other corporations vulnerable, also?

Now if EVERY artist in protest began using 'their' orphaned art, that should put them out of business or hurt the bottom line.

Also, can't the registries be sued for 'not' having a legally registered work? That is the service they provide, aren't they neglient?

Greed is always shortsighted.

Nolos.
'I'm paying for the movie, I want guns.'

There doesnt seem to be enough information about these proposed private registries. Who qualifies? what charges ? how long do they need to retain information ? what penalties apply if there is an error made.?  what protection on stolen art, that is someone lifts a pic from say renderosity and crops it so the artists name isnt shown , and posts it on another gallery site .

Opening HUGE worm can with this proposal.

Well, having thought about it a little more, now I'm wondering something, so if you dont mind...

I collect old music scores -- obscure works for the stage, mostly: operettas from the 30s and 40s, background music written for old Broadway shows, strange little musicals written for high schools in the 20s through the 50s. And much as I might like to, I cant share this collection online, in any form, because I dont know who owns what anymore.

For example, one of the things in my collection is music that was written for MEDEA, the Robinson Jeffers adaptation that was performed in the mid 40s. It's never been recorded. You used to be able to get the music with the acting script from Samuel French, but the parts werent put in in any real order, which made it a challenge to work with. And now it's been removed from the last few editions as French, like so many others, is looking for ways to cut its printing costs.

About a year ago, I started working with a software called Notion, which allows you to feed a score in and get the actual sound on the other side -- they use samples recorded in London from the London Philharmonic, and the software is amazing in its ability to create a very full, very lush sound. So I translated the music from MEDEA into Notion, and what came out was an amazing piece of 40s atonal composition.

Now, can I share these sound files? Nope. The score is copyrighted by the estate of Robinson Jeffers, and they wont allow it to be shared in that or any other format. They have no intention of actually doing anything with the music; in fact, when I contacted them about it, they had no idea they actually owned it (Jeffers commissioned the music and bought it outright), but now that they do know, they dont want anyone doing anything with it, even though, as I said, they have zero intention of doing anything with it themselves. I might add as well that the printed score available through French was clearly an incomplete one, with parts for oboe and trumpet missing in a few places. The estate couldnt even tell me if a complete score existed because they had no idea where it physically was, just that they owned it because it was on a list somewhere.

I have friends that collect old radio shows, and they're in the same quandry: one has a huge collection of what are called "trascription disks" -- these were pressings done of studio recordings of shows like BURNS AND ALLEN and the original radio version of SUPERMAN, as well as several Metropolitan Opera excerpts, all from the 30s and 40s. And he cant upload these for anyone to enjoy because he has no idea who, if anyone, still owns a piece of them. He tried once, with a series of very obscure radio variety shows and was informed sometime later to stop because the recordings had had their copyrights renewed in the 1960s. Again, the current holder of copyright had no intention of doing anything with them, but he didnt want anyone else to either. And so a lot of our musical heritage is tied up in legalities that make little sense.

I dont think private registries are the way to go either. But we do need something that provides for materials such as the ones mentioned here, things that pretty well have been abandoned from any real utility. That, IMHO, isnt copyright protection. It's incarceration.

Performers of classical music have been shamelessly sued for copyright by music publishers.   Get hold of a cantata by Bach, or an oratorio by Handel, and switch a few crotchets and quavers around;  then announce a definitive new "Edition".   Anyone who wants to perform this edition has to buy a score for every member of the orchestra, every member of the choir and every soloist.    Bear in mind that the last edition of the same work went out of print in 1882, if not 1782.    Handel and Bach have been dead since before the American Declaration of Independence, but fiddling with the score enables publishers to claim royalties from music which they never originally published.   Many performances of Bach and Handel (and others) in recent years have employed very small numbers of performers.   I wonder why.

The mentality that allows a publisher to claim ownership of a work by a deceased artist, by doing no more than editing it, is the same as the one that says ownership of an image becomes void, if the living creator is insufficiently vociferous in defence of his/her rights.

Oh, now I gotta look up the fraking word 'vociferous'! Thanks alot!

Nolos.
'I'm paying for the movie. I want guns.'

Look at it this way: you just learned a new word, right? :-)

Has it dawned on anyone yet that the current day US is the largest criminal organization in the history of the world?
Skuts 

It would be wrong to stereotype the whole nation because a few bad seeds is running it from the shadows. Best way to fight is to educate yourselves and others and expose their schemes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmPchuXIXQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_E4N5YIycI