I'm appalled. The Orphaned Works bill sounds absolutely terrifying and is a complete discouragement for anyone (like me) just starting in the business of photography, or any art medium for that matter!
Not good. We need to be working on this problem now for all of our current and future copyright materials.
Excellent article, and the first that I have heard about that.
There is another side to the story you can read here. I think this legislation is well intended, but clearly with some flaws that create huge potential for abuse.
The "other side" is just as bad IMO as the bad side. It want to basically wipe copyright off the books. Libraries loan you works of art and I do not think it is the same as saying here do what you want with it now. Seems like a week point to stand on. Scarry law looks to stiffle the creative minds want to create due to loss of it belonging to the person who created it. Definantly not voting for anyone who supports this. Who is the congress person who is pushing this? wait now I'm not suprised....Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Patrick Leahy Both pathetic excuses for representation in the U.S.
The more I read about this the more I get a feeling of great unease...it has too many loopholes that can be exploited for abuse. And the nonsense of 'reasonable search for original artist/author' it total "bleep!" - it puts the weight of proving that the offender did not go through proper procedures on the artist/author.
This is definately one thing all artists and photographers SHOULD fight. Contact your congressman - heck call their offices and tie up the lines to let them know the importance (it has been demonstrated that e-mails can and do get ignored).
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