Someone forwarded this to me today - and frankly, it scares the ever-lovin' shit out of me. Just the implications of what it could do to the artistic community....

Please - take the time to read and act. I don't say that about many things, but... dude.

I'm not even going to paraphrase the email, as I feel it did a good job of summing things up on its own.

------ Forwarded Message
There is a bill before both the House and the Senate that would allow rampant infringement (THEFT) of Intellectual Property and effectively privatize copyright registration as a for-profit business.
 
All of the details, and a way to take action against this bill, can be found at: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/
 
This is of interest to anyone who has ever created an artwork (cartoon, drawing, painting, sculpture), audio or video recording, written fiction or non-fiction, or even taken a photograph.  It applies whether you have registered your work with the government Copyright Office or not, and whether you have ever sold or published your work or not.  It would essentially provide copyright infringers a legal loop-hole to STEAL Intellectual Property which is currently protected by International law, simply by declaring the work "orphaned."  An "orphaned work" is Intellectual Property for which the creator or rights-holder cannot be located to obtain permission to use the work.
 
What the "Orphaned Works Act" would do is:

• Expand the definition of "orphaned works" so  broadly it could be applied to virtually ANY Intellectual Property,
• All an Infringer (THIEF) has to do is claim  they made a "reasonable effort" to locate the rights holder, even though they  have a great financial incentive to NOT find the rights holder, thus exposing work to unauthorized (possibly even  objectionable) use, while
• Providing no compensation or notice to the creator  of the work
• Calls for the creation of for-profit "registries"  (databases) where all works - retroactive to include EVERYTHING a creator  ever produced - must be registered to be considered "protected."  The  registries do not yet exist, there are no standards for how they would be  "certified," would rely on image recognition technology that doesn't yet work,  and would effectively replace the non-profit registration with the government  Copyright Office with many private for-profit companies
• Places the burden of diligence on the creator to  protect their work, not only by paying out-of-pocket to register everything  that creator has ever produced, but also to try an monitor the ENTIRE WORLD  for possible infringements (which is impossible for anyone to do).
• Calls for the creation of a completely new  Judiciary Branch just to deal with infringement cases
• Force creators into those courts - and assume all  the legal costs of doing so - to defend their copyrights to their work,  while limiting the amount which could be recovered to  whatever sum the Infringer (THIEF) had decided was "reasonable compensation,"  but only if the court determined that the Infringer  HADN'T made a "reasonable effort" to locate the rights holder before using the  work without authorization.  And an Infringer could argue that simply  having searched the "registry" and not having found the work listed there was  a "reasonable search" to assume the work was orphaned and no authorization was  necessary.
  

This law would STRIP creators of their Intellectual Property Rights, while adding the financial burdens of registering works and policing the use of their work, at the same time it would be exposing creator's work to abuse, while removing the only legal means creators presently have to enforce copyright compliance.  Works could be declared "orphaned" in one situation and "protected" in another on a case-by-case basis.  If the copyrights could no longer be enforced, and exclusivity could no longer be guaranteed, this law would reduce the market value of Intellectual Property rights so much as to make the copyrights worthless.  Thus, at the same time the creators are being financially burdened with registration, monitoring, and litigation actual revenues from the assignment or licensing of rights would be eliminated.
 
This law would also affect anyone who has ever posted a photograph online.  An infringer could simply take the photo and use it however they pleased, even alter it in a way you found objectionable.  If the photo was re-posted anywhere without any reference to who took it, it would be considered "orphaned."  If you didn't pay to register it in one of the for-profit databases, and an infringer looked for it there and didn't find it, they could legally assume it was "orphaned."  Even if it was posted on your web site with your e-mail address and a copyright notice, all they'd have to do is send you an e-mail, which if you never saw it (because a anti-spam or anti-virus software blocked the message), they could claim they made a "reasonable effort" to contact you - when you didn't respond they assumed the photo was "orphaned."  Oh, and they could actually attach a virus or spam text to purposely cause their message to be flagged and blocked.
 
Please write to your representatives and STOP this from becoming law!  
 
Sincerely,
Kristiana Hansen
http://www.kmhcreative.com
 
PS: Pass this on to any artists you know so their voices can be heard too.