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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


As a professional photographer and high school art teacher I am extremely interested in this legislation. However I would like to take a look at the actual legislation before I commit one way or another. In addition, it would probably be helpful, when contacting our State and Federal Legislators, if we had a name or number so as to reference the Legislation in question. Thanks
Michael Koontz (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
I just wrote to my school paper about this. This is officially fk'd up.
S. K. (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html This article has been debunked. You might want to remove it. Apparently, it's predicated on a falsehood: there is no such legislation currently introduced or even in committee discussions to be introduced this session. Certainly such legislation could be introduced in the future, but the fact that the entire article is predicated on this (I'm sure unintentional) untruth makes the argument valid but certainly needing a rewrite. The author might want to revisit his thesis and the point where he says such legislation is currently under discussion. It's a good article anyway so hopefully it is rewritten and not abandoned.
(not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Exactly what legislation are you referring to? Is there a citation? I've just spent three hours going over the daybook and I don't see a single piece of proposed legislation related in any way, shape or form to copyright at all - not in committee, on the floor or even tabled. Are you sure you're not referring to the 2006 orphaned-works bill which was never voted on and ultimately dismissed? This is very confusing - your entire article, which is quite interesting, is predicated on the existence of this legislation, and I can't find it anywhere at the national level. Maybe you're talking about something international, before the Berne copyright court? As far as I know, they dismissed similar legislation in 2002 and haven't revisited it, nor have I heard of any plans to. If you can clarify this for us, I'd really appreciate it.
Moe Hong (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Personally, I am disgusted with the American government. There is such a loss of freedom and as a Canadian it hurts me to see that the So called land of the free is willing to take away so much freedom from people. I don't know much about how it would even effect other people in the world. I would not want people to steal my work, even though I don't mind showing it to people or even people using it. all said I don't think it will work, and if it passes there would be riots I think. "Thankfully US copyright laws (and bullshit bills like this one) don't apply in Canada." (this post ©2008 Pixel Shifter) I quote my friend and I bloody hell agree with him. If this shows how corrupt the American government is where they even conceive of this idea it makes me think less of the American government.
philip mcalpine (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
So...lemme see if I got this straight. One day we have to put twenty disclaimers on something just so we won't get sued, and the next we don't own our own art? This is ridiculous! I fully support the rebel groups who are standing up against this abomination, and I stand right there with them!
Jessica Childress (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
This is despicable. But I believe there will be uproar if this bill is passed. They can't do this.
Eleanor MJ (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
This is ridiculous and should never pass. Unfortunately, with big businesses behind it, this time, it just might. Apparently, this was attempted in 2005 as well, it just didn't go through. Let's hope it doesn't again. Here is another article about it from 2005. http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=...
Amber Stone (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
I there any thing us artists outside the States can do to prevent this?
Brad (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
It is worth noting, that while you are absolutely entitled to be pissed about the very notion of the existence of this suitably horrifying bill... it's especially worth noting that the bill died in Congress way back in 2005, and has not been reintroduced since 2006. There's no need to panic, but what's horrifying is that this has become a viral internet article, and many of the artists I watch believed it immediately - and subsequently began to remove all of their work from viewing. I. Am. Horrified.
Matthew Morrison (not verified) | Sat, 04/12/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
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