 Christine Zipps |
Orphan Works Leg. - Protect Copyright Rights! Fellow artists, The Illustrator's Partnership has done a great job in letting us know what is going on with the Orphan Works legislation. Below is more information from them on how the Senate was sneaky in passing this legislation and what we need to do to stop it.
Thank you for your help.
Like the companies now needing billion dollar bailouts, these copyright registries - which would theoretically contain the entire copyright wealth of the US - would presumably be "too big to fail." Yet it's our wealth, not theirs, the scheme would risk. Small business owners didn't ask for this legislation. We don't want it and we don't need it. Our opposition numbers have been growing daily. So Friday, the bill's sponsors reached for the hotline. What is Hotlining? Critics of hotlining say "that lawmakers are essentially signing off on legislation neither they nor their staff have ever read." "In order for a bill to be hotlined, the Senate Majority Leader and Minority Leader must agree to pass it by unanimous consent, without a roll-call vote. The two leaders then inform Members of this agreement using special hotlines installed in each office and give Members a specified amount of time to object - in some cases as little as 15 minutes. If no objection is registered, the bill is passed."
The Devil's Own Day Senators Leahy and Hatch hotlined the Orphan Works Act twice last summer. Each time came at the end of a day, at the end of a week, near the end of a legislative session. Each time lawmakers were distracted by other issues and other plans. Each time artists rallied quickly and each time a Senator put a hold on the bill. Friday the Senators found a new opportunity. With lawmakers struggling to package a 700 billion dollar bailout to avert a worldwide economic meltdown, with the rest of the country focused on Presidential debates, with Washington in chaos and Congressional phone lines jammed, they hotlined an amended bill. On short notice, even the legislative aides we could reach by phone said they didn't have time to read it. And so, while we were rushing to get out a second email blast to artists, the bill passed by "unanimous consent" - in other words, by default. What better way to pass a bill that was drafted in secret than to pass it while nobody's looking? Since Friday, artists have been conducting bitter post mortems on their blogs. That's understandable, but it's not time yet. "When Sherman arrived at Grant's headquarters later that evening, he found the general - broken sword and all - chewing on a soggy cigar in the rain, which had begun soaking the battlefield. 'Well, Grant,' Sherman said to his friend, 'we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?' 'Yes,' replied Grant, 'lick 'em tomorrow, though.'"
Tell Congress to protect the private property of small businesses. Lick 'em tomorrow. - Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership TAKE ACTION: EMAIL CONGRESS TONIGHT We've supplied a special letter for this purpose: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321 Please post or forward this message immediately to any interested party.
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Mark Feldstein |
This issue has been squarely addressed here in two threads in the recent past. Some of the organizations knew they'd try to pull this kind of crap again and moved to head it off last week including National Press Photographers Assn', and American Society of Media Photographers, among others. Thanks for the heads up though. I for one appreciate it. I guess here we go again. Right kids? Mark
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Samuel Smith |
why do we think we live in a democracy?
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BetterPhoto Member |
Yeah, this is a democracy. The government can give 115 billion to an insurance agency, but they can't help the poor keep a home. Go figure. Oh, and how many millions are we spending in Iraq?
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