S. 2913 passed in the Senate on Friday - time to tell the House to vote no!

Please take a moment and protect your Constitutional Rights!!

The link above will take you to an easy to submit letter sponsored by the Graphic Artists Guild. Please personalize the letter to fit your needs and then send.

I know there are a lot of artists on the fence over this one and there's a ton of misinformation everywhere. This wouldn't be nearly so confusing if Congress would just update their antiquated thinking mode. 'Intellectual' property exists only in the intellect for a short period of time. Once you act on the idea and create something because of it, such as a painting or a sculpture or a book, then it's no longer simply 'intellectual' property, is it? It's real and tangible and it should be yours to profit from and control until the end of time!!

Oh that's too long you say? 

Why is that too long? If I looked out over a beautiful piece of land and I envisioned a resort that I then built and profited from at what point would it be fair for the government to step in and force me to forfeit my rights to profit from my work? Never! Because it's never right or fair for a government to deprive a citizen of their profit or their legacy. 

So why do artists have to forfeit their rights? Limiting the length of Copyrights was originally intended to help promote the arts and sciences so that information and progress wouldn't die. Is that really a fear these days? No, not at all we've expanded Fair Use to include research papers and studies of all kinds. Sciences and arts are advancing everyday because we are on the internet exchanging and sharing ideas. The only thing Fair Use doesn't include is the type of wholesale, bargain-basement licensing without fear of legal ramifications that would appease the Time Warner's and the Google's of the world. 

It's their opinion that they shouldn't have to be bothered by negotiating licensing with individual artists. This interferes with their profits and makes it difficult for their imperial CEO's to maintain and improve their multi-million dollar bonuses!! I say enough is enough!!!  

Please take a moment and tell Congress to oppose the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act!!!

An advocate for protecting intellectual property.

Sen. McCain holds strong positions on what has become another hot-button issue in technology: intellectual property and patents. He supports providing more resources to the US Patent Office, in the form of more staff at the agency — which would help to expedite patent reviews.

The senator would also work to ensure that intellectual property is protected worldwide, advocating agreements with other nations that would help protect the interests of US IP rights holders, including keeping the rights to their work when sold or produced overseas. — http://www.betanews.com

So far I haven’t found anything to tell me how Sen. Obama stands on the issue not even in the Washington Post’s -Votes Database. But tonight was my first night researching my Presidential vote.

For those Sharing Photos

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!

For the Artist

There's nothing in the Orphaned Works Act that does anything that Section 104 of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act doesn't already do a thousand times better.

The problem is that the Orphaned Works Act isn't about the preservation or the restoration of our historical documents and photos. That particular wording isn't even in there!

Instead this bill defines an 'Orphaned Work' 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. Never mind that the Copyright office does not have a searchable database or image recognition software! Our Senator's feel confident that corporate America can fill this void . . . at a reasonable price, of course!

No, this bill is all about legalizing copyright infringement and then rewarding the infringer with unlimited use! If this bill passes, your only reward for diligently protecting your copyright will be a 'reasonable licensing fee' whether you agree with the pilfered use or not!

Why would our Representatives do something like this? The short answer is, lower and fewer payments for artistic works, and less need for new hires. The longer answer is tied to the full name of this bill and who wrote it.

S.2913 is otherwise known as: The Shawn Bentley Orphaned Works Act 2008. Shawn Bentley was the VP of Intellectual Property and head lobbyist for Time Warner Cable.

A quick Google search will show that Shawn Bentley was a lawyer and lobbyist for none other than Time Warner Cable. As the VP in charge of intellectual property, his job description included *acquisition*, management and protection of Time Warner's intellectual property.

Please visit our website

www.defendyourart.com

If you’re a creative of any type or a parent you need to know about the Shawn Bentley Orphaned Works Act… It’s our time to stand up and fight to make sure that our work and photos of our childern are safe.