Orphaned Works Act

Rhinocerous Surprise

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-2913
http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-49535/TS-125553.mp3

This is pretty worrying for American copyright law... I can see some of the reasoning behind freeing up old images that the copyright holder can't be found. But the implications for modern visual artists are scary. I'm not certain I understand it to any great degree, but the mp3 up there at the top of the post has three artists talking about it in fairly simple terms.

Thoughts?

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

yeah its bullshit. corporations can pretty much use your artwork however they want without paying you. Even if you pay protection money to the copyright agency, they can still claim that they thought it was an orphaned work.

got this in an email. thought i'd pass it on:



FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP
Take Action: Don't Let Congress Orphan Our Work
We've set up an online site for visual artists to e-mail their Senators and Representatives with one click. This site is open to professional artists, photographers and any member of the image-making public. We've provided sample letters from individuals representing different sectors of the visual arts. If you're opposed to the Orphan Works act, this site is yours to use. For international artists and our colleagues overseas, we've provided a special link, with a sample letter and instructions as to whom to write.


2 minutes is all it takes to write Congress and protect your copyright:

http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11442621

http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/



Please forward this message to every artist you know.

Rhinocerous Surprise

As far as I can tell, photographers have it worst - they have no way of putting copyright notice ON their work, like artists can. So if you steal, say, a character from a comic book, the artist could show any number of images of that character with copyright notices right on the work, and have a strong defense. On the other hand, photographers really have no way of doing that.

Heineken Helen

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

As far as I can tell, photographers have it worst - they have no way of putting copyright notice ON their work, like artists can. So if you steal, say, a character from a comic book, the artist could show any number of images of that character with copyright notices right on the work, and have a strong defense. On the other hand, photographers really have no way of doing that.

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v287/18/125/648930914/n648930914_1282843_4907.jpg

although I think it can be taken off easy enough

Rhinocerous Surprise

Heineken Helen wrote:

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v287/18/125/648930914/n648930914_1282843_4907.jpg

although I think it can be taken off easy enough

http://www.freewebs.com/alsarticles/1%20Paper%20Roots.png

I'm probably in the same boat.

Luckily, the Orphaned Works act only applies to America. We should be safe under Irish copyright law.