Following the unprecedented response to his last column, Mark Simon offers supporting evidence regarding the threat to artists' rights.
There are lots of blogs saying that my article, You Will Lose All the Rights to Your Own Art, is untrue because there is no bill currently before Congress. In fact, legislators have the bill but have not released it yet to Congress. When they do, we won't have much time to get the word out; thus my first article.
But it will come out, and soon. You don't have to take my word for it. Here is the supporting information I based much of my article on. It was written as a counter to the blogs that say I'm insane. That may be true, but that doesn't mean that Congress isn't trying to get this bill passed.
[The following is from the website of the Illustrators' Partnership.]
Orphan Works: No Mythby Brad Holland
We've seen "Six Misconceptions About Orphan Works" circulating on the Internet. It's a well-reasoned piece, but has one problem. The author cites current copyright law to "debunk" concerns about an amendment that would change the law she cites.
How would the proposed amendment change the law? We'll get to that and other questions in a minute. But first, let's answer the broader charge that news of an Orphan Works bill is just "an Internet myth."
Q: There is no Orphan Works bill before Congress -- one was introduced in 2006, but it was never voted on.
A: Correct. The last bill died in Congress because of intense opposition from illustrators, photographers, fine artists, and textile designers. The
