ATTENTION ALL ARTISTS!!!

Please repost this!

Artists' rights are coming under attack!  The House Judiciary Commity has an Act that they are waiting to vote on that will seriously hurt artists.  If this law is passed it will drastically affect how much right you have to your own work.

The Orphan Works act (You can use this link to see where it stands: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.5439:) will take away your rights to your work. 

I can't explain it better than Tad Crawford from Communication Arts November Design Annual 2006:
"To give some additional background, on May 22, 2006, a bill titled “Orphan Works Act of 2006” was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill follows the Copyright Office proposal by allowing a person to use a work without permission if the person has “performed and documented a reasonably diligent search in good faith to locate the owner of the infringed copyright.” If the owner cannot be found after such a search, then even though the use is technically an infringement, the penalties for the infringement are minimal or nonexistent. If an owner discovers the infringement, the highest compensation that the owner can obtain is “reasonable compensation” and the infringement can continue. The owner is not allowed to seek damages, costs or attorney’s fees. If the infringement is “without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and primarily for a charitable, religious, scholarly, or educational purpose,” and the usage ceases after the owner complains, then the owner will not even have the right to ask for reasonable compensation."

What can you do?

Simply write the House Judiciary Committee and *YOUR* congressman.  Here is a link to a page with instructions and a form letter to use: http://www.gag.org/activities/advocacy_materials/orphan_works_letters_2.php
I urge everyone who reads this to pass this information on as well as write to your representives in Washington.

(P.S. I guess I am starting a mime of action as opposed to "I am Walsh from Firefly".  Do we really need a mime to tell us that?