The Orphan Works Bill is designed to benefit big corporations and legalize theft. Individual artists would have to pay to register their work at private institutions. Anything not registered would be an "orphan work" and free to use without penalty or payment.
Effectively, artists would lose any right to make money from their artwork.
We can prevent this. Ban the Orphan Works Bill!
We the undersigned
Have read about and know the intentions of the Orphan Works Bill
and
Understand that it is set only to benefit corporations and not individual artists or their livelihood
and therefore
Agree that Congress should never pass this bill or let it become law in any way, shape or form
The Orphan Works Bill (read about it here) is a bill that would make artists register all their work with a private institution for a fee, protecting already existing work but not supporting in any way any future works the artist might create. This makes it easier for large corporations to use the art and for the art to be stolen and used without the artist's permission!
This is unacceptable.
Under current law, any works an artist creates are already copyrighted to that artist. Also, an artist can sue for stolen work as well as fair value of said artwork. This is supported by international law.
The Orphan Works Bill would take away any right an artist has to get paid for his or her work.
There's a reason the phrase "starving artist" exists. Why make artists pay to register their work with a private institution and make theft easier? Currently, these private institutions are untested%u2014so if your work is registered but there's a bug in the system, all your work and money is for nothing. All it takes is for someone to claim that a work is not registered (and therefore an orphan work) and use it for free with no penalty!
Why would such a bill be written, much less passed?
To benefit corporations.
Making money is one of the prime objectives of a large corporation. The Orphan Works Bill would allow companies to use an artist's work and copyright it
as their own.
This is a travesty that must be prevented. Let the artists of the world take their future in their own hands! It's time to unite, and tell Congress that the Orphan Works Bill should never be passed!
Thank you for reading this letter. It is our hope that with enough voices saying "
No", Congress will listen. We need to protect ourselves--the time to act is now. Feel free to spread the word!
Ban the Orphan Works Bill! 