Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art!!!!

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p!tu

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April 10, 2008
By Mark Simon



As you know, I usually handle the subjects in my articles with a sense of humor. That is not the case this month. I find nothing funny about the new Orphan Works legislation that is before Congress.

In fact, it PISSES ME OFF!

As an artist, you have to read this article or you could lose everything you've ever created!

An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.

If you don't like to read long articles, you will miss incredibly important information that will affect the rest of your career as an artist. You should at least skip to the end to find the link for a fantastic interview with the Illustrators' Partnership about how you are about to lose ownership of your own artwork.

Currently, you don't have to register your artwork to own the copyright. You own a copyright as soon as you create something. International law also supports this. Right now, registration allows you to sue for damages, in addition to fair value.

What makes me so MAD about this new legislation is that it legalizes THEFT! The only people who benefit from this are those who want to make use of our creative works without paying for them and large companies who will run the new private copyright registries.

These registries are companies that you would be forced to pay in order to register every single image, photo, sketch or creative work.

It is currently against international law to coerce people to register their work for copyright because there are so many inherent problems with it. But because big business can push through laws in the United States, our country is about to break with the rest of the world, again, and take your rights away.

With the tens of millions of photos and pieces of artwork created each year, the bounty for forcing everyone to pay a registration fee would be enormous. We lose our rights and our creations, and someone else makes money at our expense.

This includes every sketch, painting, photo, sculpture, drawing, video, song and every other type of creative endeavor. All of it is at risk!

If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we've created over the past 34 years, unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won't successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free.

In short, if Congress passes this law, YOU WILL LOSE THE RIGHT TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR OWN CREATIONS!

Why is this allowed to happen? APATHY and MONEY.

Artists have apathy and corporations have money.

We need to be heard in order to protect our incomes, our creations and our careers. GET OFF YOUR ASS!

That means writing letters to our congressmen and representatives. That means voicing your opinion about how we need copyright protection, as we've had since 1976, that protects everything we create from the moment we create it. This is the case around the world.

However, an Orphan Works bill is also in the works in Europe. I was speaking recently with Roger Dean, the famed artist of the Yes album covers, and he is greatly concerned with what will happen if Orphan Works bills become law.

"This will devastate the livelihood of artists, photographers and designers in a number of ways," Dean says. "That at the behest of a few hugely rich corporations who got rich by selling art that they played no part in the making of, the U.S. and U.K. governments are changing the copyright laws to protect the infringer instead of the creator. This is unjust, culturally destructive and commercial lunacy. This will not just hurt millions of artists around the world.

"On the other side of the coin, what argument will a U.S. court have with a Chinese company that insists it did its research in China and found nothing? If the cost of this is onerous for a U.S.-based artist, what will it be like for artists and small businesses in emergent economies?"

If an artist whose work is as famous as Roger Dean's is concerned with this legislation, it should be of great concern for all of us.

The people, associations and companies behind the Orphan Works bill state that orphaned works have no value. If that were true, no one would want them. However, these same companies DO WANT your work, they just don't want to pay for it. If someone wants something, IT HAS VALUE. It's pretty simple.

Some major art and photography associations, or I should say, the managers of the associations, support this bill. The reason they support it is that they will operate some of the registries and stand to make a lot of money. Some have already been given millions of dollars by the Library of Congress. Follow the money and you will see why some groups support this bill of legalized theft of everything you have ever created.

Two proponents of this new legislation are Corbis and Getty Images. They are large stock photo and stock art companies. They sell art and photos inexpensively and are trying to build giant royalty-free databases. Do you see how they could benefit from considering most works of art in the world orphans?

Do you know who owns Corbis? Bill Gates. He doesn't do anything unless it can make a huge amount of money. Helping you lose the copyright to your art is big business for Gates.

For years we've heard of Hollywood fighting with China to protect copyrights and stop the pirating of DVDs. Our government has worked with the studios to protect their investment.

Our government is NOW WORKING AGAINST US by allowing our own fellow citizens TO STEAL OUR CREATIVE WORKS.


Spider-Man comic artist Alex Saviuk is also concerned about the loss of copyright protection. "When I found out all the negative aspects of the new legislation, it would almost behoove us to want to do something else for a living," says Saviuk. "If we would have to register with all the different companies, we would never be able to make a living."

"It would be impossible for me to register all my art," continues Saviuk. "It would put me out of business."

You can listen to my complete interview with Alex online. Think this doesn't apply to you? Maybe you don't license your artwork? How about this?

Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally.

You could see photos you take of your family and kids, or of a family vacation, used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry in order to protect them. Say the average person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to protect your photos that are protected automatically under the current laws. If there are three registries, protecting your images could cost an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright sign on every photo.

That's not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations, etc. Do you really have all that extra time and money? Plus, even if you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was orphaned and, unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may not make back your legal fees.

It gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work.

That means you will also have to look through every image in every registry all the time to make sure someone is not stealing and registering your art. You could actually end up illegally using your own artwork if someone else registers it. DOES ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?

Do you think the U.S. Copyright Office is here to protect you from this legislation? Think again.

Brad Holland of the Illustrators' Partnership shares his notes from a recent meeting with David O. Carson, general counsel of the Copyright Office.

Brad Holland:
If a user can't find a registered work at the Copyright Office, hasn't the Copyright Office facilitated the creation of an orphaned work?

David O. Carson: Copyright owners will have to register their images with private registries.

BH: But what if I exercise my exclusive right of copyright and choose not to register?

DOC: If you want to go ahead and create an orphan work, be my guest!

This cavalier and disrespectful dialogue should have you seeing red. Who the hell does he think he is? Carson should be fired and RUN OUT OF WASHINGTON!

None of this could happen with our current laws. Our current laws work and they protect us and our creations.

The only people who will benefit from the copyright law change are those who can't create work on their own or companies who stand to make a lot of money from using our works of art. They make contributions to congressmen, which is why they get what they want. We need to stand up and be heard. Every one of you need to write your senators and representatives. We have to protect our livelihoods. It's that serious.

Plus, the technologies being developed for locating visual art don't work well enough. On March 13, 2008, PicScout, the creators of one of the software applications used in the registries, stated to the House IP subcommittee:

"Our technology can match images, or partial information of an image, with 99% success."

A 1% margin of error is huge when you consider the millions of searches performed for art every day. That means for every million searches, 10,000 images could be orphaned.

Plus, this only takes into account images registered on their system. If you have registered all your work on another system, they won't be searched here and, even though you may have spent thousands of dollars registering your creations, a new or unused directory could orphan everything you've ever created.

This is just one of the many reasons why INTERNATIONAL LAW FORBIDS COERCED REGISTRATION as a condition of protecting your copyright. The United States is about to break international law by making us register our works. The people behind the bill say it's not forced registration, but you won't have any rights unless you register. THIS IS SEMANTICS! Of course, this is forced registration and we can't stand for it!

There are many, many other problems with the Orphan Works legislation. As a creator, YOU MUST understand what is going on.

For additional information on Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists.

This is not something that is going to go away easily. We need to be vocal NOW!

This legislation has been beaten or delayed for the past two years and they will keep trying until it passes. This is no time to be quiet and see what happens. What will happen depends on you. Send e-mails and call your congressmen. Ownership of your own creations depends on it.

Roger Dean sums this up well. "Where are the colleges and universities in all this? Has the whole world gone to sleep?"


More ^^^^e up ^^^^ from the government! God i love the feeling of a free country....what ever that is!


original - https://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&page=1
 
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This post will make Batty very sleepy. While he is in this hypnotic state we can make him do our bidding. Anyone care to cook up a huge hamburger and make him eat it sans helmet?

Onto the point. This is the beginnings of 'Brave new world'. As computers become more prominent in every aspect of our lives, so does privacy become more important. Anything on a computer is connected via the net, and therefore open to abuse by rich and powerful entities. This could be considered a conspiracy, as a side issue. Every email and phone conversation is already recorded and can be recalled at a later date to be used against us. Technology is moving faster by the day and legalities are bogged down more and more. Governments who are supposed to represent its people, represent big business more and more. We feel the effects of todays societies trends of doom and gloom. Stock markets rising, interest rates higher, cost of housing and rent higher, more demand less supply, more overt hidden taxes, charges and fees, burdening debt, fuel, etc, the list goes on. The way of life we have been accustomed to is non sustainable.

Individuals are easier to be dominated than bigger groups and more powerful companies. Our rights are being stripped away, and so it begins. Artists are like toys, when things get tight the first things to dispense with are toys. This legislation is just the beginning. Who makes these legislative policies? Some faceless unknown. What justifies them being considered let alone being passed? The corporate faceless unknown is what we are up against. Businesses that will live on long past our use by dates. Going up against them isn't an option for the individual. As a group it will exacerbate the situation. Madness prevails.

I don't want to go on. It will only comatose our Batty. Peace unto you all. :peace
 
Hmmm, what? Hey, where are my pants? And why am I so full? :confused:

I'm an artist myself, and one of my best friends is a recording artist. We've had several discussions about how when it comes to art or music or anything creative, there are people out there who want what you create for free. So reading something like this about how the government or someone like Bill Gates doesn't surprise me. It saddens me, but doesn't surprise me.

I will stand up against this. There's are a lot of good information and links in that article. Thanks for posting it, P!tu. :duff





So sleepy. :sleep
 
Thanks for the Info P!tu. This is troubling indeed. Do you know the name of the Bill, so I can contact my representative? Is it just called Orphan Works Bill?
 
Thanks for sharing this p!tu, I'd have had no idea about it otherwise. Very saddening to read, disgusting actually. I used to think in cases like my digital photos or my photoshop pieces I could win any fight because I can always show the original file with layers or full resolution which wouldn't be available via the web, but with this law it wouldn't matter if I coudl prove I'm the creator, it wouldn't be mine anymore if the thief did things smart and secured it for their own. Hell even my website design, regardless of the content, could hijacked and I'd just be ^^^^ed. People talk like the U.S. is a great country, but in reality, as much as it is better than a lot of places, it's just as ^^^^ed up as anywhere, just in different ways and thankfully at least, not yet in ways that make living hard (no genocide or things like that which exist elsewhere).
 
would never have though this would take place in the US of all places.:google.

I would think it'd be the FIRST place for it to happen, U.S. policy is entirely dictated by the pursuit of money, thus we have solider dying and being wounded in Iraq over oil power. Politicians don't care about the people.
 
I would think it'd be the FIRST place for it to happen, U.S. policy is entirely dictated by the pursuit of money, thus we have solider dying and being wounded in Iraq over oil power. Politicians don't care about the people.

Nope all they care is about money!!! it all and i mean all boils down to money its pretty sick
 
Lovely, now everyone will be using my art and not paying me for it.
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It's all big business. Which is just legalised thievery. Sorry to be inflammatory. So now they legitimise more thievery by making it legal for big business to do so. It'll be as bad as reality TV. Low overheads, low standards, low quality, low brow. Low. Low. Low. Maximised profits. :D

Expansion at any cost, as long as it doesn't cost. Expansion to the point of collapse. Sustainability, stretched. Collapse inevitable. Power over the masses, high. Just another step in civilised evolution.
 
What are your intentions Batty? You gonna flip it?

I've already put a copyright on it. Anyone besides myself who uses it will be sued. I soon plan on marketing it to sell cars, hamburgers, computers, underpants, beer, small children and anything else I can think of. I will make millions. I will then buy up all the HT Hicks figures I can, bring them to life and make them do my bidding. It's a simple plan, really.
 
I think we can work something out. I could always use help with worldwide dominatio... I mean distribution.
 
I think you did well to copyright that signature. Bannister is in for a fall. Awesomeness has just been pwned.
 
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