Sound Off
If you're like me you've taken time out of your busy day to make phone calls and write letters and spent many hours after midnight researching this whole orphaned works scam. So you can imagine what a treat it is to get a generic reply from a Representative who has obviously missed a few memos! Unfortunately that seems to be the standard operating proceedure for this bunch.
The Discrepancy.
Download as PDF
Sounding Off in Oklahoma.
Sounding Off in Maine.
Why S.I.C.K. is Not Better.
Round Two in South Carolina.
Q and A with Carolyn Wright
Sounding Off in Chicago.
The biggest problem with this bill is that they still haven’t defined an ‘orphan’, except to say that the owner could not be found by searching the Copyright office or the databases that Congress is so determined to open the door for.
Is an ‘orphan’ an old work, a new work, a foreign work? Or can it be just any photo/image who’s owner didn’t register it? What does this mean for the millions of families who use the Web to share photos with relatives? Are they now expected to register their personal and family photos to prevent them from being used by a ‘non profit’ in the next public awareness campaign?
If/when this does happen what recourse will the family have? Privacy laws (in the 19 states that have official privacy laws) specifically protect us from the unauthorized, *commercial* use of our image or likeness. The Lanham Act is worded the same way -unauthorized *commercial* or *trade* use. There’s nothing to protect against the unauthorized *non-profit* use of our image or likeness!
And these database owners, are they going to seek permission and pay a licensing fee to every artist who’s works are registered with the Copyright Office before they duplicate and distribute the artist’s work? Or are they just expecting to help themselves? Last time I checked that’s called ‘theft’ and in their case it would involve reselling, and distributing stolen merchandise across state lines. All with the help of Congress -how nice. Do they really think we’ll let them get away with this?
Sheesh, a while back 2 teens were arrested here in Maine for stealing candy from the school store and because they lived on the other side of the N.H. border the police very kindly added 'transporting contraband' to the charges. Before anyone starts with 'now that's extreme' let me just say no it isn't. Ethics are not measured on a sliding scale. There's no such thing as a little wrong just as there's no such thing as a little pregnant.
There's right and there's wrong. Everything in between is just a rationalized excuse.
