orphaned works

[nightwing1978]

just saw this post on another board and wanted to pass it along

There seems to be a bill going before congress Called the 'Orphan Works Bill' that could mean the end of Net Authors like us. The gist of it seems to be this: if you are not registering your work with certain privately run agencies, then they can be considered orphaned and anyone can come along and use them however they want to, and give you nothing for it. The link I'm going to put on here is mostly talking about art, but as congress always does they made a sweeping inclusion of 'other creative works'. I personally find this very disturbing but I am uncertain of how to verify if this bill is actually for real. If anyone can find out more info it would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link:

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=page ... 605&page=1

was posted by razer another free online author

[Metatrone]

Well I can't help but find this a little funny for no other reason expect the fact that most of the US government "brand new" ideas are actually quite old and commonly practiced in the ex soviet and most socialist republics. There used to be such an agency here before the 1990, not private of course. You couldn't claim the rights over an artwork unless you had submitted a request with the agency.

[Weresmilodon]

Apparently, this bill is old, and didn't pass. Seems it came from 2005-2006.

Read here for verification from someone who knows.

Edit: Bah, spoke too soon. Looks like it's coming up this year as well...

Linky

[alkiera]

Apparently, this bill is old, and didn't pass. Seems it came from 2005-2006.

Read here for verification from someone who knows.

Edit: Bah, spoke too soon. Looks like it's coming up this year as well...

Linky

If you look back through history, there's lots of these kinds of things that get brought up every legislative session, and never make it out of committee. Some congressman thinks it's a great idea and submits it every year he's in office, no matter how often it's been ignored before.

[Phantom]

Apparently, this bill is old, and didn't pass. Seems it came from 2005-2006.

Read here for verification from someone who knows.

Edit: Bah, spoke too soon. Looks like it's coming up this year as well...

Linky

If you look back through history, there's lots of these kinds of things that get brought up every legislative session, and never make it out of committee. Some congressman thinks it's a great idea and submits it every year he's in office, no matter how often it's been ignored before.

Well they are Both Alive and Kicking this time ...
The bills, the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008, S. 2913, in the Senate; and the Orphan Works Act of 2008, H.R. 5889, in the U.S. House of Representatives were submited on April 24 2008 ...



Phantom