Artists Aim to Preserve Copyright Laws and Protections
by Dena Matthews, Partner
LifeHouse Productions, Specializing in Biomedical Animation
Groups asserts passage of bills S. 2913 and H.R. 5889 in Congress would harm the general public and devastate small businesses by stripping current copyright law protections.
Without your consent or knowledge:
- Your child’s picture winds up on the cover of a pornographic DVD.
- A snapshot of your dog appears on billboards and buses nationwide.
- A photo of yourself is used to endorse a cigarette brand.
And there is practically nothing you can do to stop it.
These scenarios could be a reality if the pending “Orphan Works” legislation is enacted.
Remember how Napster shook music industry giants with a barrage of infringements in 2002? The same thing is about to happen with visual works if the bills on the “rocket docket” are not stopped. The law that protects you may be turned on its head.
“The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008″ (S. 2913) in the Senate and “The Orphan Works Act of 2008″ (H.R. 5889) in the House of Representatives, if enacted, would effectively allow anyone to steal copyrighted works for any purpose without fear of penalty. They strip legal protections from creators and other copyright holders.
Any image, including the photos your child shares on Facebook and Flickr, would be fair game, too. Unscrupulous profiteers will rest assured there will be little chance they’d be prosecuted. They would find stealing your intellectual property; pictures, artwork and photography a lucrative business model.
How can this be? The proposed bills would strip theft deterrents from current copyright law, which passively protects everyone including artists and photographers. Without the ability to receive appropriate compensation or recoup damages for an infringement, most people just could not afford to pursue such a case.
Industry leaders along with a coalition of over 60 renowned associations support maintaining current copyright laws and protections as the Senate secretly “hotlines” the deceiving bill, avoiding public debate, with hopes of swift passage this week.
If the deceptive bills, sympathetically entitled, “Orphan Works”, pass in Congress, countless small businesses would be devastated - with a force like that of hurricane Katrina. Departing from the current free and passive copyright protection all Americans enjoy, these bills require all private creative work in the world to be registered at the copyright holder’s expense, with countless, yet-to-be-created, visual recognition databases to be operated by as yet unnamed corporate entities. Those creative works not “found” in the databases would be considered legal “orphans” and free for anyone to exploit.
If the “Orphan Works Acts” are enacted and you don’t pay and register those photos your child posted on the Internet, someone else can claim them as “orphans” and use them to make a buck. In fact, others could claim ownership to them and register them for themselves and there would be little you could do except drive to every adult entertainment shop in town and snap up those DVDs with you child’s photo on them.
Having to pay, register and submit each work and all its derivatives one has ever or will ever create is- in effect- an additional tax and inordinate burden on artists, photographers, and anyone else who wants to protect their intellectual property.
To learn more about the bills or join the coalition to preserve the copyright laws under attack by this critical bill that affects us all go to http://www.illustratorspartnership.org, and http://www.owoh.org.