| Connecting the Dots - Orphan Works |
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As Deep Throat so providently said, "Follow the money". Tons of grease have been spread to lube the skids for passage of a foul smelling bill, foul because it is wholesale robbery, legal piracy of millions of small business owners' property - the right to effectively maintain control over how their creations are used. If this windfall is allowed to be harvested by Google, Microsoft, Getty, Corbis, etc., you can say goodbye to a basic, fundamental right guaranteed American citizens since the founding of the United States. The stakes are huge. Creative content the world over is at risk. We thought the U.S. Copyright Office, as well as the Senate, understood and promoted small business protections. Instead, they turned out to be handmaiden to corporate America. The money tells the story. (the above is a personal comment by Don Schaefer, U.S. citizen.) FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIPOrphan Works: Connect the Dots9.30.08 1. Web firms quietly win copyright victory in CongressSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) Sept 29 -- As the media turned its attention last weekend to battles on Capitol Hill over the fate of the proposed Wall Street bailout bill, Internet companies including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. quietly walked away with a legislative victory that could facilitate their use of copyrighted material. 2. Google Acknowledges Copyright Infringement Claims Could Harm BusinessILLUSTRATORS PARTNERSHIP Sept 30 -- In March 2007, Google filed a mandatory 10-Q Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In it, they acknowledged: "copyright claims filed against us [by copyright owners] alleging that features of certain of our products and services, including Google Web Search, Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search, Google Book Search and YouTube, infringe their rights." 3. Google Sees Value in Orphan WorksILLUSTRATORS PARTNERSHIP March 8, 2006 -- At the Copyright Office's Orphan Works Roundtables, July 26-27, 2005, Alexander MacGilivray of Google stated:"The thing that I would encourage the Copyright Office to consider is not just the very, very small scale -the one user who wants to make use of the [orphan] work - but also the very, very large scale - and talking in the millions of works. - page 21 "Google strongly believes that these orphan works are both worthwhile, useful, and extremely valuable." - page 119 "We expect that our use of these orphan works will likely be in the 1 million works range..." (Italics added.) - page 166 "[W]e know that many of them [orphan works] will be in the public domain, that most of their authors won't care. But there are a few [authors] that really will care and they will come forward [to claim authorship] and it will be extremely inefficient for us." (Italics added.) -page 166 (Page numbers are from Copyright Office transcripts.) Orphan Works Roundtables were held by the US Copyright Office July 26-7, 2005 in Washington DC http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/transcript/0726LOC.PDF 4. Google Donates $3 Million to U.S. Library of CongressAustralian IT Nov 23, 2005 -- The U.S. Library of Congress is kicking off a campaign to work with other nation's libraries to build a World Digital Library, starting with a $US3 million donation from Google.-Eric Auchard in San Francisco | November 23, 2005 http://tinyurl.com/529f9h TAKE ACTION: EMAIL CONGRESS NOWhttp://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321Please post or forward this message immediately to any interested party._______________________________________________________________ For news and information: Illustrators' Partnership Orphan Works Blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/ Over 75 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses. U.S. Creators and the image-making public can email Congress through the Capwiz site: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ 2 minutes is all it takes to tell the U.S. Congress to uphold copyright protection for the world's artists. INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS please fax these 4 U.S. State Agencies and appeal to your home representatives for intervention. http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00267 CALL CONGRESS: 1-800-828-0498. Tell the U.S. Capitol Switchboard Operator "I would like to leave a message for Congressperson __________ that I oppose the Orphan Works Act." The switchboard operator will patch you through to the lawmaker's office and often take a message which also gets passed on to the lawmaker. Once you're put through tell your Representative the message again. If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Place "Add Name" in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area. STOP THE ORPHAN WORKS ACT NOW.Another valuable resource is OWOH.Visit there, particularly the downloads section for useful information you can read and distribute to friends.
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