For more than a year Congress has been holding hearings for the drafting of a brand new US Copyright Act. At its heart is the return of Orphan Works
What does this mean for artists? it means it will make it easier for infringers to steal artists works and harder for people who are making or trying to make a living out of art more difficult. This will effect every artist and all the artwork they have created, are creating, and will be created. Corporates, Big businesses, and publishers want this to pass to make money out off artists works without paying us artists for past, current, and future artwork.
Basic Facts About The Law Being Proposed
- “The Next Great Copyright Act” would replace all existing copyright law.
- It would void our Constitutional right to the exclusive control of our work.
- It would “privilege” the public’s right to use our work.
- It would “pressure” you to register your work with commercial registries.
- It would “orphan” unregistered work.
- It would make orphaned work available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers.
- It would allow others to alter your work and copyright these “derivative works” in their own names.
- It would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.
** Ways to stop this or preventing these changes from happening**
> > > > > > > DEADLINE IS NEXT THURSDAY: JULY 23, 2015 < < < < < <
- share, reblog this post, spread it for other artists to take notice and action.
- You can submit a letter on how this law can be an issue for you as an artist here.
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Non-U.S. artists can email their letters to the attention of:
Catherine Rowland Senior Advisor to the Register of Copyrights U.S. Copyright Office crowland@loc.gov
“Right now nobody has to understand copyright law because you’re protected by it, but under the law they are proposing, copyright law wont protect you anymore.”
- Brad Holland (Quote from the video - at 1:23:30)
They are working with big corporations who I will also not name who stand to gain big time. Think about a company that has the largest search engine on the internet…they are putting lots of money behind this because there is a ton of money in controlling and selling all of our work. (x)
Which may explain why Googling the Orphan Works and Next Great Copyright Act yields so little results. Please add any extra information if you have access to it, because I couldn’t find much.
I can’t do much as a foreigner, but I sure as hell can bring it to your attention.
I interrupt a long-term hiatus to help raise awareness towards the new Copyright Laws that might come into effect starting next week unless we join efforts to stop it.
A friend and fellow artist, Will Terry, has joined forces with Brad Holland to help us understand what this Copyright Law is all about, here is their message:
“Orphan Works in a Nutshell:
- Congress is drafting a new US Copyright Act. If passed, it would replace current US Copyright law. There isn’t any bill yet, but the Copyright Office has issued its recommendations for one. Their Report is 234 pages long and is very complicated, so it’s risky to try reducing it to a few words. But here’s a summary of its basic features:
It would void your Constitutional right to the EXCLUSIVE CONTROL of YOUR work.
It would effectively reverse the default premise of copyright law; which means…
It would make the public’s right to use your work its defining goal; which means…
You would have to make your work available to the public.
You would have to do this by registering every picture you want to retain the rights to with for-profit registries.
Unregistered work would be considered legally “orphaned.”
Orphaned work would be available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers.
Good faith infringers would be anyone who believed they had made a “reasonably diligent,” but unsuccessful effort to find you.
Infringers could also ALTER your work and copyright the “derivative works” in their own names.
This would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.
It would include family snapshots and any picture or work you ever put on the Internet.
The Copyright Office acknowledges that this would pose special “challenges” for visual artists…
But they conclude that it’s in the public interest for your work to be available for anyone to use.
The Copyright Office has also recommended the following:
Mass Digitization of the world’s intellectual property by corporate interests.
Extended Collective Licensing, a form of socialized corporate licensing that would replace voluntary agreements between artists and clients.
A Copyright Small Claims Court to handle the expected flood of orphan works lawsuits.
—> The deadline is This Thursday, July 23, 2015″ <—
– WHAT CAN WE DO? –
Write a letter —>HERE <— Let them know why this isn’t a good idea!
I really want to make a Mary Poppins t-shirt design but I don’t know if I’d be allowed to due to Disney’s insane copyright laws or if it’d be okay because the original books are public domain (like Alice In Wonderland)???
or maybe I’m overthinking this I mean I make like zero profit off anything that isn’t a print
EDIT: I love my friends who know about things
THANK YOU FIONA ahahaha now I can draw the thing I have an idea for eee
