FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Take Action: Don't Let Congress Orphan Our Work

We’ve set up an online site for visual artists to e-mail their Senators and Representatives with one click.

This site is open to professional artists, photographers and any member of the image-making public.


We’ve provided sample letters from individuals representing different sectors of the visual arts.

If you’re opposed to the Orphan Works act, this site is yours to use.


For international artists and our colleagues overseas, we’ve provided a special link, with a sample letter and instructions as to whom to write.




2 minutes is all it takes to write Congress and protect your copyright:

[link]

Please forward this message to every artist you know.

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com
Place "Add Name" in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.





• The bill is written so broadly its use cannot be confined to true orphaned work.

• It would permit an infringer to determine when he or she has made a “reasonable effort” to locate me - even though the infringer would have a financial interest in not locating me.

• It would be retroactive, which means I would be penalized for not complying with laws which didn’t exist at the time I did the work.

• It would expose my future work to infringement immediately upon creation, even though I am alive, in business and managing my copyrights.

• It would place an impossible burden of diligence on me to protect my work, because infringements can occur anytime, anywhere in the world.

• It would force me into court to contest the diligence of an infringer’s search for me, yet it would remove any meaningful remedies for infringement.

• This means I would lose the only means the law gives me to enforce copyright compliance.

• It would force me into court to prove the value of my work, after the work had already been infringed and my exclusive right of copyright was lost;

• Yet it would limit “reasonable compensation” to whatever sum an infringer had established as a market rate for his use of orphaned work.

• By “limiting remedies,” the bill guarantees that the cost of suing an infringer could exceed whatever sum I might recover in a successful court action.

• Yet it would set no limits on the amount an infringer could win from me in a counter suit.

• It would deny me injunctive relief in situations where the entirety of my work has been used in a so-called “transformative” work.

• Which would be a gold mine for infringers, who could harvest “orphans,” re-cast them as derivatives, then copyright the derivatives.

• At present, the law does not allow infringers to claim my work by infringing it, but this bill would let them.

• This bill would rob me of my exclusive right of copyright, which in the marketplace triples the fee I can get for one-time usage.

• This means my entire inventory of work would be devalued by 2/3 the moment this bill takes effect.

• This bill would prevent me from restricting the use of my art on cheap or distasteful products or on products competitive with my paying clients.

• And it could drive my work into low-end markets where I would otherwise never license my work.

• While the bill would not legislate “registries,”it would have the same effect, by exposing to infringement the work of artists who don’t impose registration on themselves.

• This would force me to pay protection money to businessmen to keep something I’ve created myself.

• This would violate existing copyright law, which says “[Under current law, works are covered whether or not a copyright notice is attached and whether or not the work is registered.” (Emphasis added) [link]

• It would force all visual artists to expose our lives’ work to infringement to subsidize the start-up of commercial registries.

• These registries would rely on image-recognition technology, which is still in its infancy and not reliable.

• Also, no registry will be meaningful until all pictures which anyone wishes to protect have been registered.

• Otherwise, any picture not found in a registry will be considered an orphan by users wishing to document a “reasonably diligent search.”

• This means commercial registries will actually orphan copyright-protected work.

• Which means the bill will have the opposite effect to its stated intent.

To sum up, the Orphan Works Act exceeds its mandate by promising to make orphans of any work whose author any infringer fails to find.

• It fails to properly define the category of orphaned work.
• It sets the infringer’s bar of due diligence so low it guarantees abuse.
• It would force into the courts countless business decisions which should be made in the marketplace.
• It creates problems which do not now exist, but which would require the expansion of the Federal judiciary system to solve.



Orphan Works Update/May 8, 2008

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

Since yesterday, over 31, 000 letters have gone out from our Orphan Works advocacy site.

Q: What can we do next?

1. Write the House Judiciary Committee. We’ve set up a special alert to contact members of this important committee.


Go to our Take Action/Alert site: [link]
Look for the sample letter labeled "Contact House Judiciary Committee NOW" and send it.


If your Representative is not a member of the House Judiciary Committee, this will send him a message asking him to contact his colleagues on that Committee on your behalf, urging them to oppose the bill.


2. Ask for support from family and friends:

Please ask your friends and family (5 to 10 others) who support your creative work to also go to the site.
They can follow the instructions to easily send a message of opposition to this reckless bill.
Look for the sample letter labeled "For Supporters of Visual Artists - Wrong to Weaken
Copyright Law" and send it.


3. Spread the word to the public: Photosharing on Web will now be at risk:

Please alert your friends who post photos to the web their personal property will be at risk.
Look for the sample letter labeled “For the Image-Making Public - Protect Personal
Property”and send it.


For more information about the Orphan Works Act of 2008:

IPA Statement to House Subcommittee March 20, 2008:
[link]
IPA Senate Mark-up Comments April 30, 2008: [link]
Geneva/ May 7, 2008 Orphan Works Bill Catches Global Attention/ Intellectual Property Watch/
[link]
MP3 Interview: [link]
YouTube: [link]


Please post this message or forward it to any interested party.