#orphanworks

If you’re a visual creator of any kind - even just support the visual arts - this is big and urgent. Yes folks, this is for real.

The U.S. Copyright Office has issued a special call for letters. If you are involved the visual creative communities, on any level, this could impact you. We artists work so hard to give life to our visions, to reach into that slippery ether and pull out a creation, to be brave enough to share what we create. Previous legislation has protected our rights and ownership of our creations in the US. It’s now being threatened. Can we pull together to secure our image rights? 

As an illustrator, I first learned of this from the Illustrator’s Partnership blog (a great breakdown of history and facts about this “copyright reform”). Everything you really need to know - including all relevant links - are provided in that article by Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner. But for a quick look into why this matters so much, consider these facts laid out by Brad and Cynthia:

"The Next Great Copyright Act" would replace all existing copyright law. It would void our Constitutional right to the exclusive control of our work. It would "privilege" the public's right to use our work. It would "pressure" you to register your work with commercial registries. It would "orphan" unregistered work. It would make orphaned work available for commercial infringement by "good faith" infringers. It would allow others to alter your work and copyright these "derivative works" in their own names. It would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.

Please send a letter! Especially if you work professionally in the visual arts. But even if you do not - your voice can help.

It's important that lawmakers be told that our copyrights are our source of income because lobbyists and corporation lawyers have "testified" that once our work has been published it has virtually no further commercial value and should therefore be available for use by the public.

Because of past opposition to orphan works legislation, the Copyright Office has issued a special Notice of Inquiry on Visual Works. In it, they acknowledge that visual artists face special problems in the marketplace and they've asked artists to respond to five questions (questions from Illustrator’s Partnership here, and also another suggested question). They’ve also included sample letters, if you need a helping start to your own letter.

It’s easy to sit back and complain, in shock, that something like this could happen. THIS is our chance to be heard, and protected. I don’t know about you, but since I make my sole living as a visual creative, this really scares the hell right out of me.