URGENT: Contact your Representative to oppose S. 2913
General October 1st. 2008, 4:18pmS. 2913 passed Senate Friday - Tell the House to vote NO!
The Senate passed S. 2913 -The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008- by “hotline” on Friday, September 26, 2008.
Representative Berman still intends to release the mark-up of his bill, HR 5889. Either the House version of Orphan Works legislation, H.R. 5889, or the Senate version will become law. There are no other possible outcomes. The Guild continues to support Rep. Berman’s House bill.
The Graphic Artists Guild is urging all members and other artists to support H.R. 5889, because the bill includes a Notice of Use provision that includes a procedural “speed bump” for potential infringers. The Guild and other visual creators’ organizations have fought for inclusion of the Notice of Use and other clauses in Orphan Works legislation. The Notice of Use stipulation requires users to file their intent of using a suspected orphan work prior to use in an archive maintained by the US Copyright Office or other sanctioned entity.
The Notice of Use clause is a non-negotiable and vital provision to provide artists some protection in the future. The Graphic Artist Guild will not support any legislation that does not have this key protection. The Guild urgently encourages artists to join us in our effort to ensure House lawmakers pass H.R. 5889 as it’s currently drafted with the Notice of Use provision.
Members of the American Library Association are urging the House to adopt the Senate bill. We must counter their messages.
We have provided a letter for you to your Representative in the House through our Capwiz portal. Please act now!
To use this letter-writing portal, enter your zip code and click on “GO” for a sample letter to use. You may also personalize your own letter. The letter will automatically be emailed to the US Senate. We recommend you also print out the letter and mail it.
Thank you for taking action!
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Thanks for all the info and updates. As an artist I appreciate it. There is a lively discussion of copyright law going on here: http://tcj.com/messboard/viewtopic.php?t=5201&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 (the comics journal).
Have you fine folks ever thought of creating a website that would explain the current copyright law for anyone to understand (with examples that are clear), and then have a way for artist to link to it with a button that would say “This work is ©, to find out more, visit…” There also could be a way to get updates on the current laws by email. I would appreciate that.
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Please vote NO on S 2913! This will cause a brain drain- no artist will want to live in the US and anyone who has the means to leave will leave.