FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP
Orphan Works Update: Congress has reconvened today.
11.19.08

They’re scheduled to be in session until Friday, although that could change. And although sponsors of the Orphan Works bill say publicly that it won’t come up, sources have told us they’ll try to use the lame duck session to pass it by means of another back room deal.

Currently the situation in Washington is fluid, but if deals are being made, they’ll be made before the bill is placed on the Suspensions calendar. Then they’ll try to pass it immediately. How we respond will depend on developments. But while we keep watch, consider this news from the National Journal, Nov. 12, 2008:

Conyers To Abolish IP Subcommittee On Judiciary Panel
by Andrew Noyes

“House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers will abolish the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property in the new Congress and instead keep intellectual property issues at the full committee level, a Judiciary aide told Congress Daily today.” This is the subcommittee that spawned the Orphan Works Act and placed it on the “Rocket Docket.” Yet remember last spring, when those lobbying for this bill warned us that unless we accepted it – no matter how bad it was – that the next chairman of the Subcommittee would be a copyright foe and would pass a worse one? Well, now the Subcommittee itself won’t exist. So much for urging artists to bet against themselves!

This bill is very controversial. It would strip ordinary citizens of their intellectual property rights without due process. This is no way to pass legislation that would radically change US property laws. The bill can be fixed, but there is no time to fix it in a lame duck session. Stay tuned.

– Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership
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Over 80 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators.
U.S. Creators and the image-making public can email Congress through the Capwiz site.

2 minutes is all it takes to tell the U.S. Congress to uphold copyright protection for the world’s artists.

INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS please fax these 4 U.S. State Agencies and appeal to your home representatives for intervention.

CALL CONGRESS: 1-800-828-0498. Tell the U.S. Capitol Switchboard Operator “I would like to leave a message for Congressperson __________ that I oppose the Orphan Works Act.” The switchboard operator will patch you through to the lawmaker’s office and often take a message which also gets passed on to the lawmaker. Once you’re put through tell your Representative the message again.

Jen here.

It’s time. In fact, I’m late.

Why does the effort to make Orphan Works available seek to identify what Orphan Works are NOT rather than what they ARE?

A database where all images and art can be officially claimed will require participation by every individual, professional or not, who takes a picture and posts it on the Web, or else that picture becomes an Orphan Work and available for use by anyone for any purpose.

We can’t get people to vote. Do you think we can get them to register each and every picture they snap?

Passive copyright protection is a necessary and basic right of every individual, not just professional artists, in a free country.

If the goal is genuinely to make Orphan Works available to museums, libraries, and universities, then let’s approach the legislation from that angle: let’s have would-be users apply for special permission. Let’s have the would-be private databases collect information on true Orphan Works and leave the rest of us alone.

Current legislation seeks to siphon an ocean so a small group of people can have tea.

Even if you sent an e-mail, send another one. (You may need to click “change address.” My computer automatically shows my zip code and I’m not up for working out the right link.)

It needs to be stopped.