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The Copyright Office has completed its study of problems related to “orphan works”—copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. As requested by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Office submitted its Report on Orphan Works to the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31, 2006.
During 2005, the Copyright Office studied issues raised by “orphan works”— copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. Concerns had been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating such works in new creative efforts, or from making such works available to the public.
posted by skyfloating
On the bright side, does that mean I as an artist can more freely "borrow" others stuff and sell it as my own?
The House and Senate both introduced new legislation to allow for greater use of so-called “orphan works” — books, music, photos, movies or other works whose owners can’t be found. Why are these bills important? Because there are literally millions of works in existence that are currently under copyright protection but for which the copyright owner cannot be easily found. Because if you use a copyrighted work without permission, you could be on the hook for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work, orphans go unused.
Think of a diary kept by someone during the world war 2 and recovered from an attic. A box of old photographs happened upon at a yard sale. Think of an illustration used in an advertisement but not clearly attributed. At the moment, these works are unavailable to publishers, filmmakers, collage artists and many other creative professionals who would like to use them and gladly pay for the privilege, but can’t because of the potential for massive penalties if the original copyright owner does come to play here.
The newly introduced bills allow artists to use orphan works as long as that user makes a diligent effort to find the original copyright owner. In the unlikely event that the original owner does emerge, the compensation that a user pays should be reasonable. The two bills currently on the table — S. 2913, the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 go a long way to address these issues and if passed, would grant the public access to millions of previously inaccessible works of art.
Originally posted by CoffinFeeder
no one read this before knee jerking out a reply, did they?
This isn't just going to let someone slap their name on someone else's work and call it their own, that it still protected, but it will allow people to use copyrighted works if the owner of the work can't be located after a diligent search in good faith. This will also cover derivative works.
Originally posted by Earthscum
I mean... seriously? The other thing Wiki says is that he is a recording artist himself.
Originally posted by zysin5
posted by skyfloating
On the bright side, does that mean I as an artist can more freely "borrow" others stuff and sell it as my own?
Not unless you are a coperate entity yourself.
Originally posted by the secret web
...art is the voice of freedom.
Originally posted by Drewdatt
First we are not free, we never were free
Second we do not live in a democracy, get that out of your heads
Third, congress deciding all your laws, I mean wtf. You have no voice, you have no say, they decide the laws, they decide what you will follow and heed too.
As long as there is congress deciding for you, you will never be free.
As long as government is running your things, you will never be free.
As long as you continue to do nothing, you will never be free!
A real democracy will never exist
The system needs to go
Peace
Originally posted by CoffinFeeder
no one read this before knee jerking out a reply, did they?
This isn't just going to let someone slap their name on someone else's work and call it their own, that it still protected, but it will allow people to use copyrighted works if the owner of the work can't be located after a diligent search in good faith. This will also cover derivative works.
As a performing artist, i support this kind of bill, as well as stricter licensing fees and procedures. I feel that you should have to individually copyright each work you with to protect, not just have a blanket authority over anything written. That's not in the public interest and not in the spirit of the law.
Just because I hummed out a cute little ditty while sitting on the johnny 5 years ago and never used it doesn't mean that that tune should be locked away from society. If you believe the RIAA and other copyright/IP nazis, they would have just that kind of law. with them being the defacto enforcers/collectors as well.