Copyright Issues

[JadeGordon]

Well, if you haven't heard of it, there's something called The Orphan Works bill, and even with LOTS of objection, it passed the senate. Please help it not also pass the House.

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

If it becomes law, it will make for a lot of suffering at the hands of big business, and possibly have international implications. I personally find it depressing and scary, because it threatens my livelihood directly.

[JadeGordon]

Adding some more opinion:

I dislike the burden on the creators.

I do have a moral disagreement to the opinion put for by the Graphic Artist Guild's recent blog about art being business. Protecting art is a business, making money from it, certainly. But... I should not have to pay money for every instance of putting my pencil to paper. It's about my rights more than the business aspect.

Mandatory registration of works to obtain copyright protection would violate the Byrne convention.

The way it is worded now basically tells anyone who wants to use some art they found to go ahead and steal it, worry about the consequences later, IF that creator comes forward (or, you know, if they can afford to come forward).

Privatized databases, not official government registries are a problem, subject to massive corruption, and would likely be concerned with profit over protection of creators' rights.

The moral message in the end seems to be: Go ahead and steal, you don't have to worry about consequences unless you get caught, and even then, we'll probably only quietly ask you to not do it again.

At the end of the day, it perpetuates the desire of business to get something for nothing. Seeking desperately to find media they can use without having to share profit with those who did the initial work. Instead of freeing up older works that would be credible and viable works for public domain, it will deprive living artists, and it will prolong the culture of not wanting to take artists seriously, and hire them for quality work.

Some info here too.

[JadeGordon]

Whoo hoo! It did not make it past the house, and so, they will have to begin anew (probably). Let's hope whatever they bring back will be much improved!

[R~chan]

Wow... why would they want to pass that?! It's so obviously big business trying to steal america's ideas for free. That's atrocious!!!

[JadeGordon]

They want to pass it because big business wants to pass it, and big business tend to have the money and power. There may have been maybe a couple of hundred supporters for this change when they started it, but there are thousands of people, and a very large number of artist's rights related organizations who are insistent about preventing these changes. If the orphan works bill passes here, it would have the potential to remove us from having international copyright protection, and I can't imagine that's good for big business. I'm curious to see how the whole Popeye thing will play out too, since it's rights are different here than in other countries, and it's a very notable property that is coming into some public domain. Curious!