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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.
By Mark Simon | Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 12:00 am
Posted In | Magazines: AnimationWorld
Brad Holland of the Illustrators' Partnership.
Brad Holland of the Illustrators' Partnership

Brad Holland: If a user can't find a registered work at the Copyright Office, hasn't the Copyright Office facilitated the creation of an orphaned work?

David O. Carson: Copyright owners will have to register their images with private registries.

BH: But what if I exercise my exclusive right of copyright and choose not to register?

DOC: If you want to go ahead and create an orphan work, be my guest!

This cavalier and disrespectful dialogue should have you seeing red. Who the hell does he think he is? Carson should be fired and RUN OUT OF WASHINGTON!

None of this could happen with our current laws. Our current laws work and they protect us and our creations.

The only people who will benefit from the copyright law change are those who can't create work on their own or companies who stand to make a lot of money from using our works of art. They make contributions to congressmen, which is why they get what they want. We need to stand up and be heard. Every one of you need to write your senators and representatives. We have to protect our livelihoods. It's that serious.

Plus, the technologies being developed for locating visual art don't work well enough. On March 13, 2008, PicScout, the creators of one of the software applications used in the registries, stated to the House IP subcommittee:

"Our technology can match images, or partial information of an image, with 99% success."

A 1% margin of error is huge when you consider the millions of searches performed for art every day. That means for every million searches, 10,000 images could be orphaned.

Plus, this only takes into account images registered on their system. If you have registered all your work on another system, they won't be searched here and, even though you may have spent thousands of dollars registering your creations, a new or unused directory could orphan everything you've ever created.

This is just one of the many reasons why INTERNATIONAL LAW FORBIDS COERCED REGISTRATION as a condition of protecting your copyright. The United States is about to break international law by making us register our works. The people behind the bill say it's not forced registration, but you won't have any rights unless you register. THIS IS SEMANTICS! Of course, this is forced registration and we can't stand for it!

There are many, many other problems with the Orphan Works legislation. As a creator, YOU MUST understand what is going on.

For additional information on Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists.

This is not something that is going to go away easily. We need to be vocal NOW!

This legislation has been beaten or delayed for the past two years and they will keep trying until it passes. This is no time to be quiet and see what happens. What will happen depends on you. Send e-mails and call your congressmen. Ownership of your own creations depends on it.

Roger Dean sums this up well. "Where are the colleges and universities in all this? Has the whole world gone to sleep?"

GET ON ORPHAN WORKS E-MAIL LIST
To be notified of the latest information on the Orphan Works bill and when to contact your legislators, send an e-mail and ask to be added to the Orphan Works list.

AUDIO INTERVIEW LINK
I have recorded a fantastic interview with Brad Holland of the Illustrators' Partnership regarding this bill and what it means to us as artists. Please listen and learn more about how you may lose ownership of all your art and photos. This article and the recorded interview are available for anyone to use in print or online. Please forward this information to every person and group you know so that we can work together and protect our creations and livelihoods.

Mark Simon is an award-winning animation producer/director and speaker. He speaks around the world on subjects about art, animation and TV production. His copyrighted companies may be found online at www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com and www.Storyboards-East.com. He may be reached at marksimonbooks@yahoo.com.

Portions of this article use information and phrasing provided by the Illustrators' Partnership.

The opinions expressed in this article reflect those of the columnist and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of AWN, Inc. and its affiliates.

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Comments


Its hard to find this credible without some kind of link to the legislation. Couldn't you at least give us the number of the bill or the name of the congressman or senator who submitted it? I've searched in Thomas (thomas.loc.gov) and I can't find the legislation you are referring to. I'm not saying that its not there, I'm saying that without more information, its hard to believe that there is a problem, let alone help as you are requesting.
Kent Larsen (not verified) | Sun, 04/13/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
You will find a lot of people who work in this area is all they have left. They have no kids, they have no spouse, they have no job, they have no home of their own All they have is their work of art to keep them happy. Sending out thir work of art makes a person who is unable to walk, play in sports, get employed gives them a reason to get out of the bed in the mornings. A person disable will be robbed from their meaning of life one more time.
karen webb (not verified) | Sun, 04/13/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Just an example of socialist incrementalism whereby self determination and intellectual ownership is not assumed Registration is essentially a licence for the right of intellectual ownership - a reflection of the time we are now living in. The saying goes "everything is cost measured and commoditised and nothing valued" Very interesting article.
Art Lover (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
I have just read the comments in the above article on the orphan art legislation. This article or comment makes it sound like this just came about. Being a professional photographer this has been in play long before any legislation came about. Artists are responsible to protect their work from day one. Putting it up on the web sites is basically like giving it away. With todays digital technology the smallest of thumbnails can be blown up into usable size. We have signatures on our work we can use watermarks or layers to help reduce the risk, but like with any other media where there is a will there is a way. I have found my own photographs in publication where I did not sell them to. I may be simple but its kind of a compliment that someone thought some of my work is worth stealing. Registering a copyright is much cheaper than paying a lawyer to sue someone who has helped themselves to your work. And most cant afford to sue anyway. Be smart all you artists, take steps to protect your work ! Wether this legislation passes or not its not going to change the things you would need to do to recover your loss. If your any good at your art form you will lose some work once in a while. But remember if you protect your work to much who will see it so it can be bought. If your a painter and someone steals one off the wall thats easy to pursue. Another fact of life if were willing to admit it is none of our work is truly original, we have all in some period been inspired by someone elses work. And used it to make our creations with a personal bent. Like if I see a subject shot in a certain way that I like I will try to incorporaate the technique in my own work. Do I own the technique ? Nooooooooo but is it illegal to use it ? nooooooooooooooo. The old masters in any art form are called teachers !!!! We see their work, it moves us and we want our work to have the same affect on someone else. I myself dont believe government should have so much supposed control over matters such as this. But we elected the people who are doing it so maybe we should work a little harder on picking better legislaters. It would not surprise me a bit if the one introducing the bill was voted for by some of us artists. Write your congresional people and let them know how you feel. Take the fight where the battle is. There will always be theifs, some of them are called congressmen :)
Nick Andersen (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
That is outragious!! They have absolutly no right to use items that we have worked on for personal profit!!
Emily plourde (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
In some ways it seems like the suggested legislation is a Trojan Horse. The outer covering of reasonableness in protecting the large image distributors and other mega corporations -like Getty.com- from a lawsuit if they inadvertently distribute content that is later contested masks the potential for abuse. The onus of tracking down, registering and protecting every bit of work through a likely onerous and draconian process is dumped on the creator. Large firms may have the resources to navigate the system but many artists can get screwed. Even if the artist somehow manages to get through it, the legislation would limit the amount they can claim (to $2000 per original item -not derived work- if I read that right). Imagine for a second that an artist fails to protect a property correctly and they, or their heirs, lose it; the pirate who uses it to launch the next mega million Sponge Bob franchise can battle the artist on many fronts - and even if they somehow 'lose' and damages are awarded- the amount of damages may be so small as to provide no real restraint to a company worth many millions of dollars. That's why previous efforts to pass similar legislation were shot down. I actually think the potential for abuse can be greater in much the same way that the average citizens ability to run for public office is limited and controlled by the large sums of money required (and the need to sell part of your soul to party and lobbying groups) or in the way that electoral votes, the primary process and redistricting allows another level of control over voters. Think control and limiting access. Think of the potential use to squash creative works and people that criticize powerful companies, individuals or governments. Grabbing copyright of something that doesn't dot all the i's and cross all the t's Make the creator fight to prove ownership, meanwhile incurring debt while the offender fights a battle of attrition until you are worn out, broke or drop dead. If you think it can't happen, remember how SLAPP lawsuits were used to silence critics and force acceptance of terms by essentially beating people into submission? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP Sorry. Looks like I wrote a Theodore Kaczynski style manifesto but suffice it to say that the proposal is, at the very least flawed and potentially dangerous.
Burt Abreu (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Despite the near hysteria of the author, the current copyright regime is broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Yes, we need an orphaned works to be released in to the public domain. We need shorter copyright periods. We need, copyright holders to pay an annual tax to keep their copyright in force or lose all rights to it. Copyright is not property--it is a limited grant of monopoly that the Constitution limited to 14 years, Huge corporations like Disney have make billions off of decades old works which drew liberally from the public domain--yet deny that same public domain right to others.
Kevin Ross (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
THIS IS UN FRIG AN BELIEVABLE I HAVE RECENTLY STARTED DOING ART,i freely admit i did not draw all my characters to begin with but my friends agreed that they were infarct MINE after drawing them for me,and i am now in the process of revamping them into 3D works,now this crap starts no wonder so many hackers try to screw with the big men on capital hill THIS WAR BULLSHIT IS BAD ENOUGH we don't need more if our rights taken away "for the good of everyone" or whatever sugar coated line they use instead of we just found a new way to subjugate you now dance little puppets dance!! it's funny as hell that they still call this "the land of the free" when we become less and less free every few decades or so,our founding fathers must be turning in their graves!!!
Mathew Schurman (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
I was just wondering: what is the name and number of the resolution before Congress, if it has yet been formally introduced? I want to write my congressman, but I don't have sufficient information to put into the email os I can tell him what to keep an eye on. Thank you!
John DiPietro (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
What is this? Tis has to be the most ignorant way of the government to get money off of people who just do things for fun? 5 per artpiece?! that's disgusting! They have to take money from CHILDREN -yeah children submit work people- so they can put more cash in their pockets? Lets face it, they aint doing this for the "economy". it's already way down the tube, they want this for their own benefit. And watch, IF this thing does pass... something will happen where their crap is "legally stolen" and they'll actually get away with taking it back and suing the person. This is just about e most idiotic, imbecilic, moronic thing I have ever heard of. Whitney Cameron
Whitney Cameron (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
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