Your personal creative UPDATE!!!! New info available.
Sunday, April 13th, 2008 12:39PM CDT
Categories: People News, EditorialsPosted by: First Gen Views: 24,836
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Here is an excerpt from the article:
Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art
Mark Simon is mad as hell and, in this month's "Mind Your Business," he tells you why you should be too.
As you know, I usually handle the subjects in my articles with a sense of humor. That is not the case this month. I find nothing funny about the new Orphan Works legislation that is before Congress.
UPDATE!!!!
Matt Moylan of Lilformers.com has made this announcement with a reference link to contradict earlier reports of creative works rights loss.
Matt Moylan- I've sen many journal posts by artists today about this orphaned works mini-panic by artists.
(Ahhh! we're going to lose all our rights! OH NOES!! etc) The first place I went after reading about it was boingboing.net .They're very on the ball about any threats to copyright protection.
They are directing everyone to this article, which explains clearly how there is currently no such legislation, and how the guy generally doesn't know what he's talking about:
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html
Good read, I think it will put many minds at ease.
To view the original article and join the discussion, click View User Comments above.
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Posted by Autobot Snake Eyes on April 13th, 2008 @ 12:44pm CDT
Posted by First Gen on April 13th, 2008 @ 12:46pm CDT
UPDATE!!!!
Matt Moylan of Lilformers.com has made this announcement with a reference link to contradict earlier reports of creative works rights loss.
Matt Moylan- I've sen many journal posts by artists today about this orphaned works mini-panic by artists.
(Ahhh! we're going to lose all our rights! OH NOES!! etc) The first place I went after reading about it was boingboing.net .They're very on the ball about any threats to copyright protection.
They are directing everyone to this article, which explains clearly how there is currently no such legislation, and how the guy generally doesn't know what he's talking about:
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html
Good read, I think it will put many minds at ease.
Posted by astig on April 13th, 2008 @ 12:52pm CDT
Posted by Dinobot Nuva on April 13th, 2008 @ 12:54pm CDT
Posted by mattyc1007 on April 13th, 2008 @ 12:58pm CDT
Posted by Xion on April 13th, 2008 @ 1:03pm CDT
First Gen wrote:This is something that absolutely cannot be allowed to happen. Youtube videos, Deviant Art, Fan fiction, the list goes on of what can be stolen from us. Major businesses stand to make millions off of OUR creativity. This must be stopped, no matter the cost!!!!
I agree this sucks and is totally gay, but why he's so mad about it ?
Posted by Dr. Caelus on April 13th, 2008 @ 1:06pm CDT
Posted by 1337W422102 on April 13th, 2008 @ 1:07pm CDT
Posted by Archanubis on April 13th, 2008 @ 1:34pm CDT
That means writing letters to our congressmen and representatives. That means voicing your opinion about how we need copyright protection, as we've had since 1976, that protects everything we create from the moment we create it. This is the case around the world.
Seems to be the best course of action. I have no idea how much weight a petition would have in this scenario. However, flood a Congressman or Senator's mailbox with angry letters, and they might get the message.
Posted by An_de on April 13th, 2008 @ 1:35pm CDT
Posted by Dr. Caelus on April 13th, 2008 @ 1:51pm CDT
In that light, here are some resources you may wish to avail yourselves of:
NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 2007 wrote:Orphan Works Legislation
In 2005, the Copyright Office conducted a study on the “orphan works” issue. The study was a response to concerns that uncertainty surrounding ownership of orphan works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from using works in socially productive ways, such as by incorporating these works in new creative efforts, or by making them available to the public. The study involved written public comments (over 850 were received), four days of public roundtable discussions (two in Washington, D.C. and two in Berkeley, Calif.), and 17 informal meetings with interested parties to discuss issues in greater depth.
The Copyright Office then submitted its “Report on Orphan Works” to Congress in January of 2006. The Office’s conclusions were as follows: 1) The orphan works problem is real. 2) The orphan works problem is elusive to quantify and describe comprehensively. 3) Some orphan works situations may be addressed by existing copyright law, but many are not. 4) Legislation is necessary to provide a meaningful solution to the orphan works problem as we know it today.
Top of Copyright
The Office recommended that the orphan works issue be addressed by an amendment to the Copyright Act’s remedies section. This amendment would limit the liability of a user of a copyrighted work who performed a good faith, “reasonably diligent search” for the copyright owner but could not find that person, and provided attribution to the author and copyright owner if known, and in a manner reasonable under the circumstances.
The House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings on the Report in March 2006 and April 2006, respectively. The Office’s testimony is available at http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat030806.html and http://judiciary.senate.gov/print_testi ... it_id=5219. The Orphan Works Act of 2006, H.R. 5439, was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 22, 2006. In large part this bill follows the recommendation of the Copyright Office. The bill was reported out of the House Subcommittee on May 24, 2006 and is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.5439:. The version voted out of the Subcommittee modified the Copyright Office’s initial recommendation to some extent, mostly to address concerns raised by photographers and other visual artists. The Copyright Office supported these amendments, and sees them as improvements. For example, the version reported out of the Subcommittee would: define “reasonably diligent search” to exclude situations where little or no search is performed simply because a copyright notice or other information identifying the author or owner does not appear on the face of a work; direct the Copyright Office to maintain information on its Web site about best practices and industry guidelines for conducting a “reasonably diligent search”; allow a resurfacing copyright owner to recover court costs and attorney’s fees in the case of “bad faith” negotiations by the user; and direct the Copyright Office to conduct a study on “small claims” in copyright infringement cases.
Following the House Subcommittee’s vote, the Orphan Works Act was combined with the Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (“S1RA”), H.R. 5553, and the two became the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006, H.R. 6052. The full House Judiciary Committee took no action on the Copyright Modernization Act, but the Copyright Office suspects that work on orphan works legislation will resume during in the 110th Congress.
Hyperlinks at end are my addition.
Can't find any current bills on the topic. It sure seems like this hasn't seen the light of day for a while now.
Also, trying to find facts to support this guy's passionate article, reminded me of a particular piece of online art:
Posted by dragons on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:07pm CDT
edited--- they may own the didgital work but tehy dont own the original pieces of art waork that was done on paper or taped with digital camcorder
Posted by saberconvoy on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:11pm CDT
Posted by Izanami on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:17pm CDT
From Matt Moylen aka the guy who does LilFormers
I've sen many journal posts by artists today about this orphaned works mini-panic by artists.
(Ahhh! we're going to lose all our rights! OH NOES!! etc) The first place I went after reading about it was boingboing.net .They're very on the ball about any threats to copyright protection.
They are directing everyone to this article, which explains clearly how there is currently no such legislation, and how the guy generally doesn't know what he's talking about:
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html
Good read, I think it will put many minds at ease.
Posted by ashe5k on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:24pm CDT
If this isn't the case, then someone please direct me to the right info.
Posted by Cyber-Kun on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:29pm CDT
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html
Posted by Liege Evilmus on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:30pm CDT
If thats correct, this is very bad!!!
Posted by Blitz Magnus on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:33pm CDT
Should we remove all of our creative works off the internet if possible?
Should our videos on youtube be changed to private or be removed all together?
Regarding 1337W422102's comment
"It's funny you guys are mentioning Youtube. When you upload a video to Youtube, you sign away the distribution rights."
What exactly does it mean when you sign away the distribution rights upon uploading a video?
If anyone can answer these questions, please do! I am in need of answers.
Thanks in advance.
Posted by woosh on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:37pm CDT
a giant watermark across the picture.
Posted by Klozminded-G1 on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:47pm CDT
We all know this law WILL NOT apply to the use of a business's intellectual property for us little people...
So a business and government can have all the power, and we, the creators, can have NOTHING.
HOORAY for communism!!!!!
Posted by rhinox555 on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:57pm CDT
Swooping down on our rights like some predatory bird!
If they can even steal THIS from us,What chance then,what chance do we have! All this bullslag,it never ends! What are they playing at! Those SLAGHOLES are giving me the worst case of indigestion i've ever had!
Throw in your furmanisms of anger!
Posted by Scatterlung on April 13th, 2008 @ 2:59pm CDT
This is absolutely sick.
If this is true, and if it goes through, I predict a lot of rioting.
Artists are very passionate people.
Posted by bumblebeeconvoy on April 13th, 2008 @ 3:23pm CDT
If this bill is passed how long before the UK and Europe give in to pressure from our friends across the pond's pressure?
I'm sure my fellow Trans-fans are aware of our country's reluctance to join the war in Iraq and our government went ahead and did it anyway.
This could affect the an entire global artistic community!
Please sign the petition at the link given in the article.
As individuals we are weak, but together, we can accomplish anything.
'till all are one.
Posted by rhinox555 on April 13th, 2008 @ 3:28pm CDT
I suggest there be placed a "breaking news" banner about this news!
Posted by Izanami on April 13th, 2008 @ 3:56pm CDT
Calm down people.
Think about this for a second.
"Does this sound absolutely ridiculous?"
Hmmmmm.....
"Does this sound like something anyone would actually do?"
HMMMMMM....
"Have my opinions been formed by an angry rant and/or a whole bunch of people screaming in outrage?"
well...
"Do I really know anything about what they're talking about? Have I done research into it?"
"Have I tried to find the other side of the argument?"
"Could I have been mislead?"
Okay, seriously people. The orphan works law isn't necessarily "I'm gonna take your rights away! HAR!" Even so, if you're worried about people stealing your work, then don't put it out on the internet in the first place. In any case, has anyone ever heard of signing their work? Anyone? Fellow artists? Date and signature? Hellooooo....
Again, since I know one post won't do a thing, here's a link to a good amount of info on the law.
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html
....does anyone else hate the "save" button right next to preview and submit? I keep hitting that instead of submit...
Posted by rhinox555 on April 13th, 2008 @ 4:22pm CDT
It's in the place where EVERY other board has "submit"
Posted by Aurax on April 13th, 2008 @ 4:33pm CDT
Please do research on stuff like this, folks. I'm sure I'm already too late to stop it, but there should not be a single email or Facebook group formed to stop this "threat".
As has already been mentioned, there is nothing pending in front of the whole Congress. The author of this piece appears to have taken information from a hearing that was held on March 13.
This only issue this not-even-proposed-yet legislation would affect is the status of copyrighted works where the author is not reachable by a party seeking to obtain usage rights.
The only troubling aspect to the US Copyright Office's proposal for this situation is the vague condition that those seeking rights have to perform a "reasonable" search for the copyright owner. On just about every single repository for fan-created art (of whatever stripe) your username is attached to that piece. It is not invalidating your copyright claim. It is not opening the doors to corporations to steal your stuff. Copyright law is otherwise unchanged by this (i.e., valid copy protection for your lifetime plus 70 years).
Some more links to calm the storm:
- The Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, the committee in which the hearing in question was held. This page has a video link (RealPlayer or similar) to the actual proceedings of the March 13 hearing.
- A statement by Marybeth Peters of the USCO, taken from her testimony at that hearing.
- The Orphaned Works Act of 2006, which is the most recent version of the legislation to see the light of day. It was later rolled into H.R. 6052, which did not get a vote before that session of Congress ended.
May calmer heads prevail...
Posted by Mr-Valkeyreion on April 13th, 2008 @ 4:47pm CDT
i'm going to cry
well theres gonna be a pation eventulley...ANGRY TRANS-FANS UNITE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Hyre on April 13th, 2008 @ 5:22pm CDT
Posted by Archanubis on April 13th, 2008 @ 5:23pm CDT
Aurax wrote:Caelus and Izanami, thank you for your words of reason.
I second that statement.
Posted by metalformer on April 13th, 2008 @ 5:53pm CDT
On a side note, I'm not surprised to see a certain name as the owner of one of the registration companies (Reminds me of those crazy stories I heard about him being/compared to the Anti-Christ many years ago. Also hoping this don't get me sued).
But the thing that... upsets me (trying hard NOT to use profanities) is that even fanart could become "orphaned" (On this aspect I would love to see those giants fighting over that). This show me just how desperate these people are!
Actually I should not be surprised by this. In my opinion, people with too much money are the ones who actually run the countries and it is only natural for them to rip off the poor like this. Just look at the way song artists are treated! Receiving a small percentage of the earnings while the company gets the rest AND keeps the song for themselves to do the heck they want to do with it!
I have been thinking about registering my works for a while, but never got it as priority. But seeing as how the big bad wolves are lurking in the shadows, I better start doing it NOW. So I better start researching on the topic and see if these BASTARDS at least has some discount offers for multiple submitting of works (if they at least want to pretend to be playing fair).
PS:
Will it be inappropriate from my part asking for some links to resources of the subject of registering or contacting the senate (besides the one posted)???
Posted by Jazz Reborn on April 13th, 2008 @ 6:23pm CDT
Posted by masterpeice_skyfire on April 13th, 2008 @ 6:25pm CDT
Posted by ragingtsunami726 on April 13th, 2008 @ 6:34pm CDT
Posted by Justicity on April 13th, 2008 @ 7:13pm CDT
ragingtsunami726 wrote:Why is it so hard for people to read before replying?
Because fan's are stupid.
Me included...
Posted by Sunstar on April 13th, 2008 @ 7:13pm CDT
Read this link: viewtopic.php?f=145&t=38288 I quoted from Matt Moylan who doesn't seem worried at all.
Posted by MYoung23 on April 13th, 2008 @ 7:34pm CDT
Posted by Wheeljack35 on April 13th, 2008 @ 7:51pm CDT
Posted by Izanami on April 13th, 2008 @ 8:13pm CDT
rhinox555 wrote:Yeah,save button sucks.
It's in the place where EVERY other board has "submit"
Yay! I'm not the only one!
Posted by Autobot032 on April 14th, 2008 @ 12:55am CDT
Don't be surprised if corporate America would try this someday. When you have the money, power and connections they do, anything is possible.
Just remember to do everything in your power to make sure people know it's your work and if it's ever used, your name will be prominent in said work(s).
Besides, unless you're making money off of it, I wouldn't worry about it.
Yes, I realize that you've put a lot of work into these pieces you've made, but in a way, it's kinda flattering. What if your work was picked as advertising fodder to be seen all over the world?
Sure there's a negative to that, especially if you don't endorse the product or service, but you're out there.
Posted by Scatterlung on April 14th, 2008 @ 7:29am CDT
Autobot032 wrote:I'll say this...
Don't be surprised if corporate America would try this someday. When you have the money, power and connections they do, anything is possible.
Just remember to do everything in your power to make sure people know it's your work and if it's ever used, your name will be prominent in said work(s).
Besides, unless you're making money off of it, I wouldn't worry about it.
Yes, I realize that you've put a lot of work into these pieces you've made, but in a way, it's kinda flattering. What if your work was picked as advertising fodder to be seen all over the world?
Sure there's a negative to that, especially if you don't endorse the product or service, but you're out there.
You're not over there, your image is. Remember the worry is the artist wont get credit.
Posted by PhantomPrime on April 14th, 2008 @ 10:36am CDT
AND A MILLION MORE TIMES NO! Whoever was the piece of slag who came up with this must burn!
Posted by Stormrider on April 15th, 2008 @ 2:55am CDT
The best advice for people - if you don't want your art stolen then add your name and copyright it.
Posted by T-Macksimus on April 15th, 2008 @ 10:05am CDT
If you want to protect what you love, be ready to fight to the death for it 'cause you better believe there's some A**hole out there ready to try and take it from ya.
Can't say as any of this surprises me, but it sounds like for now it isn't a major problem, (Moylan isn't sweating it) but I would not consider it a dead issue. Relax, catch your breath and get ready to start swinging HARD when the next round starts.
Posted by GremlinGrimlock on April 15th, 2008 @ 5:52pm CDT
of who yas deal with,and take the buddy system when it comes to promoting your work. Seiber,is like dev....if there is a scheister
about....put a posting...spread it around.
If yas want to see a scheister,if their still on line...go to
gremlincreatives.deviantart.com...see the main journal...these
people stole several artists work. Oddly enough...as the toad that I
am....reports on the messages seemed to be resolved fairly quickly.
So post and spread....by the way....you guys have a spot on our
page on dev as well...look after friends...mucho..grim:)........