Orphan Works Bill (For Artists)

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Author Message   Arnomation Citizen Username: Arnomation Post Number: 674 Registered: 7-2003 Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 8:12 am:        I'm not sure how many artists there are here in the two towns but there is a new bill trying to get through Congress called the Orphan Works Bill which is an ammendment to the 1976 Copyright Law. Orphan Works legislation is being championed by museums, libraries, archives, foundations and Free Culture advocates and in theory it sounds reasonable because there are many old works of art that they would like to use for various reasons but can not find the copyright owners or in some cases the copyrights have expired. Here in lies the problem. The current Copyright Law states that a work is protected as soon as it is created and what this Orphan Works provision will allow is for anybody that wants to use a piece of artwork, to claim that after a 'reasonable search' they couldn't determine who owned the copyright and use the artwork and claim the work had been Orphaned. Where the problem occurs is that there is nothing to stop someone from ignoring or removing the copyright from a work, using it and then using the Orphan Work defense as in the BLUE GIRL case where a big tobacco company took an image off a freelance artists promotional post card and used it in an ad campaign and claimed the art had no copyright. You can read more about it here at the Illustrator's Partnership and at the ORPHAN WORKS RESOURCE PAGE FOR ARTISTS   Duncan Supporter Username: Duncanrogers Post Number: 6801 Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 12:23 pm:        Thanks for posting that arnomation. That is kind of ugly legislation. But the Blue Girl issue sounds a little more like a trademark thing. Admittedly I didn't read it, but the cost prohibitive nature of tradmarking that is where the trouble might lie in an issue as you summarize it. I will definately read that link later...very interesting`   Duncan Supporter Username: Duncanrogers Post Number: 6833 Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Friday, August 4, 2006 - 10:59 am:        BIG BUMP Arno I read this and have written both Senators and our congressman. I encourage other artists of almost any discipline to read and then follow up.