09/28/08 - Nonpartisan Reporting - Orphan Works Act - Educate Yourself!

Many of you probably don't even know what the Orphan Works Act is or how it's passage into law will effect your life. Here are several articles or blog posts to consider:

Print media articles:

• NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/opinion/20lessig.html?_r=2&ex=1211947200&en=dcf3c1149318e375&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
• Boston-Herald: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1095637

Blogs:
Animation World Network

• Mark Simon: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605
• CBR Forum: http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=217795
• Drawn Blog: http://drawn.ca/2008/05/13/oppose-the-orphan-works-act-of-2008/

National Cartoonists Society

• The Daily Cartoonists: http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2008/05/12/ncs-urges-opposition-to-orphan-works-act-of-2008/
• Tom Richmond: http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/?tag=orphan-works-act
• Crafting a Green World: http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/06/23/the-shawn-bentley-orphan-works-act-how-new-copyright-legislation-will-affect-indie-artists-and-crafters/

American Association of Editorial Cartoonists

• The Daily Cartoonist: http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2008/09/28/aaec-responds-to-passage-of-orphan-works-act/
• AAEC official site: http://editorialcartoonists.com/news/article.cfm/629/

Professional Photography Groups: (yes, you guys need to ACT too! Any visual art work is at RISK!!)

• Photo Business News & Forum: http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2008/04/orphan-works-act-thieves-charter.html
• Advertising Photographers of America: http://www.apanational.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1
• American Society of Media Photographers, Inc.: http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/orphan_update.php

This bill is regressive and pro big business - most artists are small business - we must stand up now to this legislation that will adversely effect our ability to make a living!

The international Copyright Law called the Berne Convention states that"no artist should be subjected to mandatory registration to allow for copyright protection"!

"Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at creation: an author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Berne Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, and to any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires. The Berne Convention also resulted in foreign authors being treated equivalently to domestic authors, in any country signed onto the Convention. The UK signed the Berne Convention in 1887 but did not implement large parts of it until 100 years later with the passage of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. The USA did not sign the Berne Convention until 1989."