The Anti Orphan Works Petition

Orphan Works as said by Representative Brad Holland of (www.IllustratorsPartnership.org) "It’s a Misnomer, It is not what it appears to be; It is in fact a Trojan horse".

By this Mr. Holland means as follows, The Orphan Works bill is literally a bill that seeks to free-up or resurge past creative works that are undocumented or anonymous; by which Libraries or Museums cannot use these works by law since they are unknowns or past registered under dead artists. The footnote goal of Orphan Works is to make these past works able to be used in any means possible, making them permissible for use by any who seek to use them. What Orphan Works does not profess in full is something in the worst light, it hides a malicious shade in it's intents; meaning if this law were to be passed all current copy written works would be stripped of their rights and cast out as Orphan Works-hence the bills name. This means that the safeguarded Copyrights mean nil; they no longer protect your exclusive rights; with Orphan Works passed "no more" will you have a default right (registered or unregistered) by the Copyright Office stating that you hold rights to you own work. What this does is undermines your right as the author of your art, so basically your work is now the right of the public forum and not you as an individual... so it is potentially divvied to the public and you are no longer the lone shareholder of you're art.

In order to gain the rights to your artwork you must register (all) of the hundreds to thousands of pieces of art you've ever done, just to be acknowledged as their maker (and bear in mind, this will cost you currency per piece that you register). And to whom do you "have to" register with- a Commercial registry and get this... "None exist yet" (they will be owned by the elite class/private businesses sector). Consequentially, if Orphan Works is passed, in the meantime while the Government is setting up these Commercial registrars you're art will be literally hanging in the drift-and anyone can claim it if it is not safeguarded.

Do not stand for this as an Artist and please back this petition; below is a citation from which this information has come from, read all information to get a full spectrum of what the Orphan Works Bill will do - and please sign this petition to get it rolling.

Mark Simon radio host: interviewing Brad Holland of the Illustrator's Partnership; as well as a cluster of information on Orphan Works.

http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html