that... does not look good... im in the UK myself so there aint much i can do

The UK has their own version in the works, according to the article.

oh dear fucking god, wtf is with goverments, money and power... its right, the only people who benefit are those wishing to steal and use art for their own means. I will be moving to the US soon I think but whilst I am here in the UK I am sure I can kick up a fuss...

As upsetting and disturbing as this might sound, it won't pass. Our government can be pretty dumb sometimes, but their not so dumb as to let something like this pass. I've heard of similar laws trying to be passed like this, they all failed :P

That sounds a bit optimistic. Under the current administration, anything can happen.

ok, yeah...good point *shudders* e__e

I'd be far, far, far more worried about the incoming administration.

Are you suggesting it could easily get worse?

Never underestimate the government when it comes to going downhill.

I dunno, I'd say as long as McCain(sp) doesn't get it, we'll be at least a LITTLE better off. Still, very good point. Anything can happen in the "sue McDonalds for hot coffee" age of human stupidity.

For the record, the lady who sued for hot coffee in her lap actually had a point. The coffee was kept incrediably hot, far, far above the needed temperature, and it scalded her when it spilled. They kept it this hot so that it stayed 'fresh' tasting longer. Usually, you didn't replace the coffee until it was all gone. On top of this, the lid was not properly secured on the cup. It's as if I gave you a leaky bucket of lava and you spilled some. When you get the Full Story, it doesn't seem as dumb.

Our nation has it's share of making dumb mistakes. Fortunately, dumb mistakes are very temporary in nature.

No, it still seems dumb. Maybe she had a right to be pissed, but I don't think she was entitled to the reward she got out of it.

I can agree that the amount is rediculous, for sure.

Which is probably why the reward was substantually reduced on appeal. It was -far- more then she was asking, that's for sure.

Lets hope that trend continues

http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html

Gotta say I'm not american, but even so, certainly seems like people are making a big deal out of.. well, nothing.

I'd rather make a big deal over nothing than assume it's not going to happen and get surprised buttsex'd.

As appealing as surprise buttsex sounds...

And just where did you get the impression that the PEOPLE of the country have any say over what our leaders do with this country? Yes there is the constitution, but most politicians view that as a pretty piece of paper that made us into a country, which has no other meaning whatsoever. After all, only 27% of us think Bush should still be in office, but we don't see anyone dragging him kicking and screaming out of the whitehouse gates. It's also hardly a democracy when the majority of the people voted for Gore, and Bush still became president (not counting the Florida incident) and even if the people of this country were unanimous about something, it's still up to our leaders to make and put into effect any law they want, no matter how much of a fuss the people make. All the people of this country get is an election every few years, which have to be pretty much unanimous themselves to get even the slightest illusion that we have any power in this country, as was intended when the country was born. No, we have to keep our mouths shut and get ass-raped by the current administration as we have been for the past seven years, until November, when the government will actually be willing to listen to our... suggestions.

Hehe, sorry for ranting like that, but the bottom line is, whether or not this law passes isn't up to us.

i can understand your cynicism, but don't lose faith. it may be bleak but that's not saying that it's impossable to affect positive change.

Complacency and apathy will get us all killed one day if we don't do something.

I've lost faith in the government, but I'm not completely without faith. Mainly I'm just hoping it can't possibly get any worse. The scary thing is, if Bush escalates the war, he can try to have the election postponed. Another thing that bothers me, is that the current state of the country is going to get people on their feet to do something about it, but in about ten years or so, society will forget why they did so. I mean, humans seem to be incapable of learning from history. After all, there are plenty of black preachers speaking out against gay rights.

black preachers speaking out against gay rights

Oh LOL! the Irony! (or would that be hypocrisy? both?)

hehehe it sounds appropriate to call it both.

I get the impressions there's gonna be lots of Americans stealing work over the internet from people of other nationalities.

That's my main concern. If some American company decides to claim that my work is orphaned and they have the right to it, how exactly am I supposed to stop them?

I honestly don't know.

That's why the only portion of my writing I ever post is furry smut. It's not like I expect to ever turn a buck on it anyway.

Only in America

You do know Sweden has nearly no copyright laws whatsoever, right?

I don't know how things are there, but I doubt that you have a few big companies forcing everyone to pay for their own work.

Good thing I am canadian. x:

Me too. I have my doubts as to whether that's going to matter, though.

given the global nature of the internet, i wouldn't suggest sitting back with that mindset... unless you completely cut yourself off from the internet, but, what good would that do?

Hopefully we don't have to worry about it. Stephan Harper isn't THAT stupid...I hope... x:

heheh, don't hold your breath... Mr Toady (to me) seems more interested in corporate interests than responsible government.

still, i do find it funny... amidst one of the biggest political scandals in canadian history, they were barely able to get him into the seat... and it's also a minority government which is waay waay better than one being in majority imo.

for all of the news articles scan through I havnt come through this one. What usually happens here is a bill proposed by the president and is declined by congress by its stupidity xP

I really doubt it will pass and if it does it will cause a very large uproar...

Agreed, anyone who has taken a high-school government class would know about copyright and patent laws. People are stupid, I realize this, but nobody would be so stupid as to pass a bill like this.

Oh, people would be. (See Bush, Ted Stevens, et al.) The question is whether or not there are *enough* of them to pass it.

Hey, I've been reading all these journals, and it seemes to me people are over reacting. Apparenly that artical is out of context, and the truth is that if somebody steps forwards to claim it, it's no longer 'orphanded' Besies, the last time this was seen was 2006. and do you think a big company like disny is going to let this go though, and then register each and ever one of its images?

I don't buy that article for a second. I've read too many articles highlighting statements which completely contradict it. To sum up what seems to be safe and unsafe if this ever becomes law:

Safe: Posting images on FA, and/or including "http://www.furaffinty.net/user/slate" in the lower right corner. These can't be orphaned.
Unsafe: Posting images anonymously on an image board with no mention of your name anywhere and a go-ahead for redistribution.

well... with photoshop's cropping ability, yes they can.

They can be cropped, but the person who did the cropping and redistribution would be totally sue-able.

I'm an American, and I say "Fuck 'em".

It'd be funny as hell to get a knock at the door from the FBI, and as you open the door, you smack them upside the head with your art-folder full of sketches and HDDs full of scanned images.

According to international copyright laws, ANYBODY's written, drawn, or created material, is copyright to them. Created materials such as inventions, can be pattented of course, and a pattent is effective for 20 years. A copyright is instantaneously assigned to audio/visual/written material, such as art, music, or books. A copyright is effective for one's own lifetime, plus 70 years, according to the Federal Trades Commission.

I still find it highly "bull-shittish" that any such law would be passed, and I'd like an actual government-source on where this article came from, because any way you look at it, it sounds like a load of crap. I don't think it's reasonable for any lawful body to pass this kind of thing, and I doubt it would be passed by anyone who actually has common sense, lest the whole world fall into chaos.

Sure, let's all claim rights to the Mona Lisa, The David, or "Yellow Submarine". Give it up, people, this is a bogus report, and you shouldn't worry over it.

It's not bogus. It really exists, and it's been around for a while. Check your online resources.

If I had a direct link to it, I would give it, but I don't... I need to look one up.

Also, the Mona Lisa, David, and \"Yellow Submarine\" are all in ANOTHER country, and at least one of those has a living copywrite owner for it. :P

I still have to stress the fact that I brought up just a few posts above. Anyone who has taken a high-school gov't class would know the laws of copyright and patent laws.

Again, any national government which would actually pass a frivolous law like this, doesn't deserve to exist, and most honestly couldn't. There would be so many lawsuits over EVERYTHING.

And this.

http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/

My last question to this, and I am in no way attacking anyone here. We're all friends and artists. But how on earth is this bill going to benefit the people, and gain any support? What? Are all of the no-talents out there trying to grubb up other peoples' works?

I don't think it's a law, or ever was intended to be. It was an older act that was being considered, and is being looked over again. I think the reflex of the artists here was, "OMG NOT MY ARTS!!!!" D: and then they all started babbling at once. It's unlikely any bill would fully pass, and even if it did, as I said below, Just register your art. It's not hard.

now that is seriously fucked up.

I really don't believe that article one bit. The person who wrote it keeps yelling out, "Protect yourself! Protect yourself! Protect yourself! Get off your rear end and write a letter!" Its way too much beating around the bush and does not go and state exactly what the thing entails. Just as a brief glance, mind you i didn't pay all that much attention or interest in looking at the thing, just scanned over a page but it says, "It defines an “orphan work” as any work where the author is unidentifiable or unlocatable, and applies to both published and unpublished works, US and foreign, regardless of age." <http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00178> So doesn't this mean that so long as you mark your work that it won't matter? I doubt this thing will even get anywhere NEAR getting passed but even still, just add your siggy and you should be fine.

No.

For the longest time, The artist  ferris had been posting art, then having someone else take that art, carefully REMOVE his signature, then claim it as their own. At least one or two people I know have had their art taken by major corporations; there was the one case of Hot Topic selling a T-shirt with art they cloned from someone else's they found on the net... and that ALREADY HAD T-SHIRTS BEING SOLD BY THAT PERSON ONLINE.

Just putting your name on art isn't protection from it being stolen. Even watermarking an image can be undone with some effort.
Sometimes, a copyright is all that you can do to truly protect your art.

That article is extremely opinionated, and offers in defense of its position only ALL CAPS and repeated statements--not arguments. It doesn't even offer a link to the original text of the bill. All of this is more likely to make me suspicious than to influence my opinion.

Is there a link to the full text of the bill? Is this even a recent issue?

See, this is what I'm talking about.
http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html
"I also give links to useful supporting material, and resources you can use to keep track of this issue as it evolves."
This is a person I will listen to, and whose opinion I will respect. I didn't automatically disbelieve the first post, but I wasn't surprised to find that the guy was full of hot air and little else. I'd really like to be surprised that this is getting so much attention... but I've studied human psychology, and usually a little rationality is just too much to hope for.

eep! o..o being in america myself, this.... well, sucks. i personally dont know how to go about such so i just pray that this doesn't go through O..o

yaaaaaay Amerika.

God i love the country I live in...

Canada better not adopt such a heinous sounding law >_>

Geeze, that's creepy. Thank you for the link, I forwarded it to the director of the Art Institute where I went to college, hopefully he'll help spread the word as well.

Hold on.

According to someone who has already copywritten a lot of their own work, the way you've portrayed it isn't quite true.

Artworks that you have created will not be automatically copywritten, but it doesn't really matter. I and a friend were actually looking into this. Sure, it's done automatically now, but the simple fact is, unless you do the paperwork ANYWAY, if it ever comes to a situation in which you intend to take the matter to court, there's not much you can do. If you don't have papers in court SAYING this or that work is yours, then you won't have any proof, and so you're kinda screwed anyway.

Secondly, you are able to register artwork by the CD, not individually, and you can do it for only $30 USD. This means if you have ONE CD with all your work on it, and you copywrite that CD, then all the art on it is copywritten and you have it in writing. The paperwork they give you will count for everything on the CD separate or not.

Lastly, and this was a point that I found to be rather simple, yet amusing, if you don't want to make the effort to actually get your shit registered and copywritten, then why would you care? If someone takes your work due to your own unwillingness or laziness about the situation, there's no reason for you to complain. And if you are in that odd state of mind where you both don't want people using your artwork, and yet don't feel that your artwork is all that good, or good enough to copywrite, then perhaps you should stop posting it, or stop worrying about it. The BEST way to end any possible worry about this is to simply gather what you have, send it and the $30 to the US Copywrite Office, and get it done.

Pleh. The auto copywriting thing was one of my favourite laws. I never used it, and it technically wasn't entirely legally binding, but it was still a good idea.
Also, surely this can't affect sites where the host is based outside America. Ok, that doesn't leave you with much, but still...

In Google I typed: "orphan works" congress hoax

It led me to a news article on Deviantart which contains several useful links: http://news.deviantart.com/article/46404/

Apparently there is a congressional project dated 2006 which has a positive motivation: how can we handle the rights for using works available on the net, but whose author simply can't be found? A number of irrealistic proposals were made.

But the blog entry who recently started the buzz simply assumes that the project is ready to be voted, and that is false.

Anyway, people seem to have an urge to rush to post their opinion and give their two cents without gathering any information first. This reminds me of what the philosopher Schopenhauer said: only 1% of educated people are worthy interlocutors.

I thought this had already been settled that this isn't completely true.

As far as I understand it, for someone else to use orphaned works, they have to attempt to contact the original creator, and if that proves impossible, they may use it. If the original creator objects, I believe that they'll be required to pay royalties.

The article is totally wrong. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/352443/

......This wont last long, you watch

america rules *cha*

i dont understand the apathy rampant in america. even the people who truely believe in a cause are barely willing to lift a finger to change the current course of events.

I don't think this bill will pass because the long term effects will have terrible results on the US economy, but if it does I am moving to Canada

why are we the stupidest people on this planet?

Oh hell no... That's all I have to say. It won't happen...

Sigh... why dose it seem like were always Screwing ourselfs over (americans in generial... or humans)? or attempting too? Companies can lower the gas prices, because they are making about 100+ billion easily a year. But they dont, so now Americans are suffering not just with gas prices but food, the cost of living is going up. I don't even get WHY we even try to succeed any more, for me just out of highschool i cant get a job and i applied to several different areas, because all of the people (not just imagrents) have more experience than someone just out of highschool like me, and now this bill is being proposed, "IF" it dose pass, im screwed, and so is every art teacher, and future artist.... This proposal just discusts me further with america and some contrys act as a whole...

Please read the journal after this. It turns out all this worry was slightly premature.

Ah, well... I was just getting into art, and this would have killed it for me >_> ...

hey this included all written art too right?