Don't think for a moment that the Shawn Bentley Orphaned Works Act will leave you unscathed. If you share your family photos and video online as so many of us do, the wording in this bill will send chills down your spine!
As it stands, an 'Orphaned Work' is defined not in terms of historical significance, but instead as any work that doesn't have the creator's information clearly attached and who's owner can not be found by searching the Copyright office. Any photo meeting these two guidelines can be deemed 'Orphaned' by this bill and can be used by any non-profit in any public awareness campaign without fear of legal ramifications. Current privacy laws only provide protection from the unauthorized 'advertising, commercial or trade' use of your image or likeness. The Orphan Works Act specifically allows for the non-commercial, so called non-profit use.
How many parents ever register the photos and videos they share online with the Copyright Office?
But Senator Leahy's aide believes personal photos and videos will be safe simply because the website will identify the proper owner.
Apparently no one in Senator Leahy's office has ever heard of image scraping software (does anyone remember the original Google image search?) and it's ability to quickly separate vast quantities of images from their sites!
Imagine how many family photos can be scraped from the web in a single day!
Well never fear, thanks to The Shawn Bentley Orphaned Works Act no matter how horribly, embarrassing the use of your photos gets, you won't be able to sue for even one penny more than the cost of a stock photo!
That's right, regardless of the damages done by having your child's photo used in a public awareness campaign, no matter how humiliating that campaign is, this bill limits the total court ordered award to a 'reasonable licensing fee' and the guilty party will be allowed to continue to use your child's photo!
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