FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

Call to Action
Last Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed their Orphan Works Act.
It is now headed for the full Senate.

If you’ve written before, now’s the time to write again.
Urge your senator to oppose this bill.

Because it has been negotiated behind closed doors, introduced on short notice and fast-tracked for imminent passage without open hearings, ask that this bill not be passed until it can be exposed to an open, informed and transparent public debate.

We’ve drafted a special letter for this purpose.
You can deep link to it here:
Contact your Senator in opposition to S.2913 NOW

The House Judiciary Committee is considering H.R. 5889, the companion bill now. Please write them again:
Contact your Congressman in opposition to H.R. 5889 NOW

2 minutes is all it takes to write your senator and representatives and fight for your copyrights. Over 68,000 e-mail messages have been sent so far.

Don't Let Congress Orphan Your Work

Please forward this message to every artist you know.

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Place "Add Name" in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.

Good.

I'm all for it.

Because someone else, that was completely uninvolved with the creation of something, and someone that has shown no interest in the artwork for 50 years.

Should not be able to come along and suddenly sue, someone else for using something, 100 years after the person that made the art in the first place, has died.

Especially if the person using the art, is a teacher etc....

As it stands right now, that can and does happen.

Daidalos

In an educational aspect art should be open to viewing, learning and teaching. Never stealing and allow using it to butcher into crap. Sorry that is my opinion and I graduated with an art history degree. I learned BTW to create my own art.

Why should it be OK to allow business to steal when they should gain thier graphics by ethical legal means.  I believe in protecting all works, Great & Small, and not using them to hawk cars or stereos!

If this is so callously disregarded, you little "mantra" siggy will be even more apropos then you think. Censorship and creative theft are the bane of artistic growth. So bury your head under a rock, this is NOT good for anyone who does art, but a boon for big business.

Ariana

Quote - Good.

I'm all for it.

Because someone else, that was completely uninvolved with the creation of something, and someone that has shown no interest in the artwork for 50 years.

Should not be able to come along and suddenly sue, someone else for using something, 100 years after the person that made the art in the first place, has died.

Especially if the person using the art, is a teacher etc....

As it stands right now, that can and does happen.

Daidalos

After dealing with some very old photos of our area I would agree with you to a point (and only the aged photo/restoration point).  Earlier I read, I think one of Ariana's posts, where copyright laws could be written to allow old photo restoration, etc without endangering more current works and giving the violators an out.   The problem with this bill as it stands is the change from your work being automatically protected under copyright laws to automatically orphaned unless you pay to register it.   It doesn't just affect old images where the photographer/artist is no longer around but affects anything you upload to any online gallery. 
Reading of and experiencing companies who use the internet for searching for materials and this will become a nightmare for some. 

It wont be large companies who have a lot to lose if they use copyrighted work who encroach on anything you upload to your online gallery.  It will be little companies who routinely encroach.  At the trade show we go to every year there are hundreds of little companies selling images on mugs, t-shirts, magnets, key chains, (anything you can put an image on) etc and they will freely  admit they search the internet for their images.  (my husband didn't understand when I walked away from one guy, mid-order)

These types will not change their habits no matter what the laws state but this bill could give them a legal out if they use artwork that is not easily recognized. 

This is one of the most insidious laws ever considered.