Congress is considering a bill, U.S. Orphan Works Act of 2008, that would be devastating to visual artist and photographer copyright protections. The bill would require registration with fee for each image - photograph, painting, print, etc. It would also remove current "you create it, you own it" copyrights.
Congress is being pushed by large corporations who would benefit greatly by being able to "use" (read steal) orphaned (unregistered) works. Artists without deep pockets will be fee-ed out of business and/or loose the rights to their own work.
I just took action on this issue and hope you will too. You can take action by sending an email to your senators and representatives. There is more information and a simple prewritten email you can use at the Illustrators Partnership of America site - they send it to the right people, you even don't need to look your congress people up. Very Cool !
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Artists Take Action: Protect Your Copyright
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2 comments:
Good for you, Michael, for getting this link up for action. (You beat me - my
blog.artcareeradvice.com is a tad bit behind schedule!).
I don't know if you're familiar with Robert Genn, but he aptly called this the Mickey Mouse bill.
In his Twice Weekly newsletter, RG wrote: "Promoted by dough-head non-artists who are obviously listening to big-time lobbyists...Big boys like Disney have always felt the necessity to register copyrights. Can you imagine what's involved in owning and protecting Mickey Mouse? That's why I'm calling this the Mickey Mouse Bill. It continues to protect Mickey but leaves little guys like you and me with another layer of paperwork and expense."
The Internet gives us a chance to fight back, and every blog post we can direct toward this issue is critical!
It is so important to stop this legislation. Since the general public will not be interested in this issue it is up to the artist community to make our voices heard.
It is critical that artists get involved in stopping this legislation and getting legislation to change the charitable gifts tax laws for artists.
Please let me know where the best forum is to reach the largest community of artist.
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