| Orphan Works Opposition - Plan B |
|
Despite the huge setback for creators' rights yesterday with the automatic and uncontested passage of the U.S. Senate's flawed Orphan Works bill, there is still much that can be done to limit its damage and expose the outrage to the wider public. Right now the Illustrators' Partnership is taking the lead to call on every concerned person to ask their U.S. Representatives to stand up to the Senate, reject adoption of that bill, S 2913, and DO NOTHING with their own version of Orphan Works bill (H.R. 5889), thus killing Orphan Works for this legislative session. The House has currently suspended all rules so anything can happen, the worst being that Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers would take the easy way out, abandon the House bill and adopt the Senate version, thus making Orphan Works the law without a single vote being cast by anyone in Congress. Why don't you fax/email/call the Judiciary Committee members, particularly John Conyers and Lamar Smith, and ask them to take no action on Orphan Works this session? You should be outraged, deeply concerned, that a bill with such far reaching consequences could become law with no debate, no meaningful public discourse, and no vote. Contact info for the House Judiciary Committee: This is our best chance for the moment. Please act on it and spread the news widely. If you have already emailed your Representative, do it again!! Orphan Works Resource page for artists: Below, please find the way forward with the latest action alert from the Illustrators' Partnership . FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIPOrphan Works Opposition: Plan BSEPT 27 Yesterday, in a cynical move, the sponsors of the Senate Orphan Works Act passed their controversial bill by a controversial practice known as hotlining.With lawmakers scrambling to raise 700 billion dollars to bail out businesses that are "too big to fail," the Senate passed a bill that would force small copyright holders to subsidize big internet interests such as Google, which has already said it plans to use millions of the images this bill will orphan. With the meltdown on Wall Street, this is no time for Congress to concentrate our nation's copyright wealth in the hands of a few privately owned corporate databases. The contents of these databases would be more valuable than secure banking information. Yet this bill would compel creators to risk their own intellectual property to supply content to these corporate business models. That means it would be our assets at risk in the event of their failure or mismanagement. As David Rhodes, President of the School of Visual Arts has said, the Orphan Works bill would socialize the expense of copyright protection while privatizing the profit of creative endeavors. Copyright owners neither want nor need this legislation. It will do great harm to small businesses. We already have a banking crisis. Congress should not lay the groundwork for a copyright crisis. --Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Illustrators' Partnership NOW FOR PLAN BWe MUST try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill (HR5889) and adopting the Senate version. PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS TODAY. If you've done it before, do it again! |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
