Orphan Works Bill

Okay, so I know that with my fanbase of, hmm, four or so, this may not make much of an impact, but I figure every little bit helps.

Being creatively inclined myself, I'm concerned about the Orphan Works Bill, which can strip me of the rights of anything I've written, anything I've photographed, anything I've made, unless I pay to have it registered with the copyright office. That means that if I make something semi-decent, any Slick McTheiver (okay so it's not my best) can steal my work. Current copyright law is that I own the works of anything I create as soon as I create it. If someone wanted to steal my work, they'd have to prove they own the copyright. With the Orphan Works Bill, they could steal my work, and then *I'd* have to prove I own it--which I wouldn't, unless I'd shelled out some cash to register it.

Anyway, fanbase of four, please read the following, watch the youtube video, and if you're a creator of works yourself, or sympathize with those of us who are, contact your congress representative.

_____________
Permission to share is granted at the end of this, so please do.

There's a reason why Google, Getty, Disney, et al are interested in seeing
this bill pass:

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=CqBZd0cP5Yc

PASS IT ON

The Orphan Works Bill promotes theft of creative work, pure and simple.
This bill, currently under consideration in Congress, will deny you the
right of immediate ownership over the product of your own creativity, and
therefore makes it increasingly difficult to make money--much less a
living--from it.

Copyright law, as it is now, acknowledges that the work you create is
legally yours--your own property--as soon as you create it.

The Orphaned Works Bill will deny that right of ownership. It requires that
the creator of any work must pay to register that work before it can be
legally deemed the property of the creator. It means you have to register
with a private company to have it copyrighted. That means your work can be
"orphaned" as soon as it's created, especially since such companies don't
exist right now.

Should someone copy your work and leave off your name, it becomes "orphaned"
especially when the copied work is copied again and again. These days, this
happens all too easily. That repeated copying makes it difficult to
discover who created the work in the first place--even for the "diligent"
copier.

In addition, it pits million- and billion-dollar companies that want easy
access to creative work against artists who can hardly make ends meet from
their own work as it is. Why? Because it puts the burden of proof on the
creator of the work, rather than the copier.

Worse, it seriously erodes the property rights of citizens of the U.S. as
outlined in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to our Constitution.

Write your senator and congressperson now.

Washington state residents:

Senator Patty Murray: http://murray. senate.gov/ email/

Find your state representative:

https://forms. house.gov/ wyr/welcome. shtml

Feel free to forward this e-mail.

"The three great rights are so bound together as to be essentially one
right. To give a man his life, but deny him his liberty, is to take from him
all that makes his life worth living. To give him his liberty, but take from
him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty, is to still
leave him a slave."

- George Sutherland, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
1921.