Orphan Works Legislation Update 5.28.06

Here is information from the Illustrator's Partnership regarding the current status of the Orphan Works legislation now before Congress.

Please read through this information, posted in its entirety, and continue to pressure your congressman and representatives to not support this bill. Other information links are found at the end of the text for you to become better informed.

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Yesterday [5/26/06] the Orphan Works Act of 2006 [HR 5439] was marked up by the House Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. It was approved by voice vote and sent to the full Judiciary Committee.

At the afternoon session, which was webcast live, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) praised the bill, but also expressed concern for the rights of illustrators and photographers. Then, last evening, Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) called another meeting which had not been publicly announced. At that meeting, the legislation was passed. The vote was "unrecorded" so there is no record of who voted for or against it (or in fact, who voted at all - only a quorum was present). Eyewitnesses report that the vote was unanimous.

The legislation will now go before the full committee for a vote. According to a reliable source, Chairman Smith expects the bill to be marked up by the full Committee at the first mark-up session after Memorial Day recess.

This bill will expose our past and future copyrights by legalizing infringement immediately upon creation. We’ll send you more information about it in the next few days, but we believe this is the time for artists to mobilize again. We’ll notify you shortly where to send your letters. Thank you for your continued support.

For additional information about Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists or see IPA Forums: “Free Culture-The Copy Left Is Not Right.”

You may post responses or ask questions on these forums. First-time users will be asked to register.
You do not need to be an IPA member to use the IPA public Town Hall Forums.

Please post or forward this email in its entirety to any interested
party.

Additional Sources of Information regarding Orphan Works:

U.S. Copyright Office

American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) extensive outline and updated information specifically regarding photographers.

www.editorialphoto.com

The Law Library Exclusive
Excerpt from llrx.com:

"Certainly one of the motivations behind this sustained drive to do away with the formalities was the desire to align U.S. copyright law with the requirements of the Berne Convention. Many constituencies were pushing for the U.S. to finally join this system so as to give U.S. citizens greater protection in the increasingly global market for intellectual property.

And so what we are left with at present is a system where protection arises automatically, without even any thought about whether the creator desires to have copyright protection. Click a picture on your digital camera, and you have a copyright-protected work. Dash out a rambling thought on your blog, and you’ve got protection at that very moment. Couple this with the steadily increased term of copyright protection, and a very serious blow has been struck to the availability of freely available public domain works.

The problem of “orphan works” is not, however, solely the result of changes in copyright law. Even if the original copyright owner is known to the permission seeker, the passage of time, death, business insolvency, etc. may result in great difficulty in finding the copyright owner. A willing permission seeker thus may know who held the original rights in the work, but as a practical matter cannot locate this individual or company. In reality, this can be as great of a barrier as the situation where the creator of the work was never known.

"[The] approach mentioned by the Copyright Office would encourage the use of orphan works by lessening the potential penalties if the copyright owner did later emerge and object to the use. For example, if the user can show that reasonable efforts were taken to locate the copyright owner prior to the use, damages from any infringement action would then be limited to a reasonable royalty fee (without the threat of other remedies available under current copyright law). This approach would limit the exposure of a user of an orphan work, but still preserve the copyright owner’s legal right to enforce protection.


Footnote from Howard Paul (Editorial Photographers):
Members of the House Judciary Committee are:

Republican
Hon. Hyde
(R) Illinois, 6th

Hon. Coble
(R) North Carolina, 6th

Hon. Smith
(R) Texas, 21st

Hon. Gallegly
(R) California, 24th

Hon. Goodlatte
(R) Virginia, 6th

Hon. Chabot
(R) Ohio, 1st

Hon. Lungren
(R) California, 3rd

Hon. Jenkins
(R) Tennessee, 1st

Hon. Cannon
(R) Utah, 3rd

Hon. Bachus
(R) Alabama, 6th

Hon. Inglis
(R) South Carolina, 4th

Hon. Hostettler
(R) Indiana, 8th

Hon. Green
(R) Wisconsin, 8th

Hon. Keller
(R) Florida, 8th

Hon. Issa
(R) California, 49th

Hon. Flake
(R) Arizona, 6th

Hon. Pence
(R) Indiana, 6th

Hon. Forbes
(R) Virginia, 4th

Hon. King
(R) Iowa, 5th

Hon. Feeney
(R) Florida, 24th

Hon. Franks
(R) Arizona, 2nd

Hon. Gohmert
(R) Texas, 1st

Democrat
Hon. Berman
(D) California, 28th

Hon. Boucher
(D) Virginia, 9th

Hon. Nadler
(D) New York, 8th

Hon. Scott
(D) Virginia, 3rd

Hon. Watt
(D) North Carolina, 12th

Hon. Lofgren
(D) California, 16th

Hon. Jackson Lee
(D) Texas, 18th

Hon. Waters
(D) California, 35th

Hon. Meehan
(D) Massachusetts, 5th

Hon. Delahunt
(D) Massachusetts, 10th

Hon. Wexler
(D) Florida, 19th

Hon. Weiner
(D) New York, 9th

Hon. Schiff
(D) California, 29th

Hon. Sánchez
(D) California, 39th

Hon. Van Hollen
(D) Maryland, 8th

Hon. Wasserman Schultz
(D) Florida, 20th