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Orphan Works Act : Write your senators!
Hey all, You can find the name and contact information for your Senators at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ Here is the letter: Re: S.2913 the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 Dear Senator ________________________________: I am a professional photographer and it is crucial to my professional livelihood that you oppose this bill in its current form (Orphan Works). If this bill's current language becomes law, it would permit, and even encourage, wide-scale infringements of my copyrighted photographs while depriving me of many of the protections currently available to me under the Copyright Act, including the right to ask the courts to award statutory damages and attorneys' fees. In the publication world, the reality is that most photographs will easily become considered orphaned, depriving me of a significant part of my much needed income. I urge you to oppose this bill unless and until it is amended to contain at least the minimum provisions that are critical to protect photographers, including but not limited to a notice of use that must be filed before the use is made, upon penalty of losing eligibility to claim orphan work status for failure to file the notice; an archive of the notices, to be maintained by the Copyright Office or an approved third party; and other protections that appear in the current (May 15, 2008) language of H.R. 5889. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide you with any additional information. Thank you for your time. I hope that you will take the necessary actions to protect my interests and prevent the passage of this bill until it is amended to be fair and reasonable to all parties. Respectfully yours, (your name) Please send now! May 20 08 07:42 am Link MelissaMariePhotography wrote: I understand the idea of writing to your senator to oppose the Orphan Works Act, but I don't understand the point of this letter. The provision you are asking for, the filing of notice before the work is used, is indeed contained in the current version of the bill. A lot of organizations fought hard to get that provision. May 20 08 08:20 am Link https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thre … age=1#last See this thread for info. Also, Orphans Works Act of 2008 bill number s.2913 Link to current version of bill so you can read it (May 15, 2008). http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/COE08543_xml.pdf Article in Photo District News on May 8th 2008 http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/a ⦠1003801084 And APA Responds to PDN's Orphan Works Story on May 12th 2008 http://www.PDNPulse.com/2008/05/apa-res ⦠.html#more http://rasadesign.com/orphan-works-bill.html Also the ASMP has info on it and keeping it updated as the bills work there way through the House and Senate. ASMP http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2008/orphan_update.php http://www.asmp.org/about/hot_issues.php APA http://www.apanational.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1 Illustrators Partnership http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ SAA http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/orphan-works http://www.orphanworks.blogspot.com/ a page for artists (photographers, photojournalists, illustrators, painters,.......) to contact your members of Congress. They have letters all ready written that you can customize and it will send it to your reps. Here is the link. Scroll down to find photographers or what ever art you wish to represent. http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ Regardless of how you feel on this bill, you should read up on it and its impacts on artists. One possibility is having to register your copyright with 1 (or multiple) private companies that will act as clearing houses. What a headache that would be on top of registering your work with Copyright Office. May 20 08 11:58 am Link Let's not fool ourselves once this bill passes the law will be on the side of Google for image theft and then it will be David verses Goliath & his other brother Goliath. I'm reposting this link: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ I believe it's very important for all US creatives to send their Senators letters TODAY & TOMORROW!!! Tell them NO May 20 08 04:36 pm Link Those of you in NY, APA has requested we start a fax campaign to Senator Schumer who says his office hasn't received many contact opposing Orphan Works. Here's a link to the email send by APA: http://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPu … d1fe4d82d7 May 20 08 05:17 pm Link Dear ASMP member: Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 21, the House Judiciary Committeeâs Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property will hold a closed-door session on H.R. 5889, the orphan works bill. It is crucial that all of the protections for photographers that have been included in the current language of that bill stay in that bill, without change or erosion, and that nothing is added to the language that would be to our detriment. Time is short, and it is essential that you act, and that you act immediately! We are asking those of our members whose Representatives serve on the Judiciary Committee to contact them immediately. Time is critical, so please send a fax or email as soon as possible. There is a sample letter that appears below, and at http://asmp.org/news/spec2008/model_letter_HR5889.php on our website, that you can copy and paste, being free to edit as you like. You can find who your Representative is at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/. When you click on his or her name, you will see a list of his or her committee memberships. If you see either âHouse Committee on the Judiciaryâ or âSubcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Propertyâ listed, please send the message that appears below. If your Representative does not serve on the Committee or Subcommittee, you need not take any action at this point. We will need your help later, but not right now. May 20 08 05:42 pm Link bump May 20 08 08:44 pm Link May 20 08 10:40 pm Link Paul Brecht wrote: PPA is in favor. John Harrington, in his PhotoBusinessForum's blog expressed concern about PPA's participation in the process. May 21 08 12:06 am Link Kevin Connery wrote: There's probably a VERY interesting inside story on how PPA was corrupted into supporting this dastardly piece of pro-theft legislation. May 21 08 05:09 am Link Thanks for the info Melissa - I will be doing that after I get off this site. This act is bullshit and it's pissing everyone off - here and in Europe (and they're mad enough at us already for the last 8 years of BS). This is something none of us photographers should ignore. May 21 08 05:18 am Link |
