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Any creative who wants to continue should read this! This bill goes through and your rights to your artwork ain’t owned by you anymore!
For those of you who don’t know, an orphan work is a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder. This situation can arise for many reasons. The author could have never been publicly known because the work was published anonymously or the work may have never been traditionally published at all. The identity of the author could have been once known but the information lost over time. Even if the author is known, it may not be possible to determine who inherited the copyright and presently owns it.
The Orphan Works Act in the USA will pretty much open all the copyrighted work for the last 32 years to be potential orphan works. This means for example that an individual or a business would be able to take your work, put it onto their product and sell it without paying you. The bill also asserts that the only way for creatives to protect their work will be to register (i.e. pay a fee) each individual piece of their work, they will have to REGISTER their own work, they will have to PAY to own THEIR own copyright!
Now, you maybe asking, “what does that have to do with me? I’m not in the USA”. Well, there are huge implications for us on this side of the pond too;
According to the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) it reads:
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT:
“The agreement says governments have to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws, and that the penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations.”
The Orphan Act is not water tight for creatives, as I have already highlighted China is able to get away with stealing your work, what will stop people/businesses in the USA from doing exactly the same if this bill goes through?
For much more in depth information and to listen to an interview with creative Brad Holland on this very subject I again urge you to follow this link:
http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html - even if you just listen to it in the background while you’re working!
Time is of the essence here, you have until tomorrow to act!
Please pass this information onto any creative people you know this is crucial to our very own survival.
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One Response to “Orphan artwork theft bill!”
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May 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Before freaking out too much folks, it’s best to read this article by Meredith L. Patterson that clears things up about the now-expired orphan works bill. It turns out that much of the panic over this has been not only overblown, but misreported too.