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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


In 1994 I discovered that the Disney company was releasing a television series called Gargoyles that was surprisingly similar to a screenplay and character line that was developed and marketed many years before. I sued and lost, the judge refusing to honor my copyrights or acknowledge character similarities. I believe my character designs and my copyrights were stolen and that years of work were thrown away. My rights were not protected even with copyrights and a lawyer. The judge refused to believe that a corporation would do anything dishonest. Our hard work cannot be stolen. FIGHT THIS FOR ALL ARTIST, PRESENT AND FUTURE! Please e-mail with any comments
Joseph Tomasini (not verified) | Mon, 06/16/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
I started to read this article, and the implications are despicable, even to me a rather non-artist. I dabble in photography, but would never consider selling it. I play with photoshop, but hardly consider anything I create to be art, though I am certain it fits the description. I'm also Canadian, and as such safe from the implications of U.S. and U.K. legislations, in the short term. I'm not so naive as to believe that if given an inch, the business and corporate end of things will run with it for the mile. Now to the nitty gritty. I'm a computer *ahem* enthusiast. Open Source is one of the most beautiful things in the world to me, as are the free and open unto themselves corporations that are there to back it. Look at the GPL and FSF that came about to protect and fascilitate the works of soft-ware developers who didn't want to hide everything away from the world, because let's face it. Well written code truly is a work of art. This brings to mind the worst-case scenario, the legislation gets passed and to be "your" work, it must be registered as "your" work. Now I can already name one free place to license your works. Creative Commons, I HIGHLY suggest reading what they're all about. http://creativecommons.org/about/ And that's great, if you're actively and comercially using those works, especially on somewhere as widely available as the WWW. Why should it be necessary to license every work though? And you're right, it shouldn't. Even with great, and free open-source tools developed to help publish on Creative Commons Such as: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcPublisher Reducing the work-load of setting up your Cc License, it's an atrocity to think that every time you have an original thought you should have to run off to a computer and register that thought! Also the current extent of the Cc's power has it's limitations, however if a movement such as those that created the Open Source Software licenses could push for two key components behind the power of an established and trusted NPO then even after the worst case scenario there could be hope. Again I only use Cc as an example, as it has established itself already. Two things need to happen, one an NPO needs to start fighting now, before the possibility of the bill, to be included in the arrangement. Two, someone with clout (An established, or newly recognized but large organization) needs to push that there be a centrallized database, even if it's just one that connects the decentralized ones to facillitate the ability to reference and find registered works. Such an organization should have it's Policies reviewed and laid out to help protect the rights of the individual. That ownership of original work by original owner is sufficient grounds to contest an assumed "orphan" that has been falaciously registered. It would need to be capable of encompassing multiple media types, photo, video, audio, literary. Most of all, it would need to be completely transparent in it's operations and available to the people it is conceived to protect. If it worked for software, it can work for art.
L Parker (not verified) | Mon, 05/26/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Yes.. this is awful.. but i do not see a photo credit under your head shot Peace, Jennifer www.jenniferesperanza.com
Jennifer Esperanza (not verified) | Sat, 05/24/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
When are we all going to wake up to the fact that the people who are creating these laws and passing this kind of legislation are nothing more than common criminals and extortionists. How long is it going to take to bring these people to justice. They should all be rotting in prison. I have always been told that extortion was a crime and if you or I did some of the things they are doing we would find ourselves in a world of trouble. If anyone ever wants to start a class action suit with the international justice system against these criminals who are supposedly running this country and corporations you can count me in. I don't consider laws and legislation passed by criminals to be valid in any way, shape or form.
Fiore DeRosa (not verified) | Wed, 05/21/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
I hope artists/all creatives are listening and I think that a demonstration would be a great idea personally. But, if we can't do that, we can write our reps and tell our friends/fellow artists. People need to know the scope of the opposition to this. Too many people are "waiting to see" - all I want to know is what are you going to do if this is right and you're stuck with it? do you think that these multibillion (with a B) dollar companies are going to give us a "do over" - it'll be too little, too late. Don't let people like Mark fight this battle alone. Get involved now, before its too late. Valorie
Valorie Wilson (not verified) | Mon, 05/19/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Hi, Robert Genn (www.robertgenn.com) asked me to pass this along to you, It's his letter on the The Orphan Works Bill, reader responses and live comments: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/mickey-mouse.php All the best, Michelle Moore Robert Genn Studio www.painterskeys.com
Michelle Moore (not verified) | Thu, 05/15/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
URGENT Sign petition here: http://www.furafterdark.com/tour2.html Show your SUPPORT!
Jarred Jamesworth Jr. (not verified) | Thu, 05/08/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
This would be devastating, especially to the local artists without funds to register. Those of us who sell reproductions of our work would lose all of that income. I, for one, depend on that income, since originals are at the higher end of the price scale, and my reproductions sell rather well. Having been in the art business for thirty years, I have many contacts, and will encourage them to react against this legislation. Registering all of our images is a joke even if we had the money. Does anyone in congress know what it takes to create theese images? Are we to predetermine which might be popular and register only those? All of it? That figure would be astronomical for most serious artists.
Carole Brender (not verified) | Thu, 05/08/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Any way you can write a letter where people can add their signatures and post it on this site? It may be a very effective way to collect really impressive numbers. Julia
Julia Michry (not verified) | Mon, 05/05/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
Quite the bogus bill. How do they intend to keep this in line with international copyright law?
Erik Mumm (not verified) | Sun, 05/04/2008 - 00:00 | Permalink
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