Have any of you heard of this? Essentially, it's a proposed act that, from what I can tell, threatens a lot of rights of creative artists and writers, by allowing works to be considered "orphaned" if not registered.
Here's an article discussing the act. From that article:
Quote:
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An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.
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The original May 2006 bill:
HR5439 Orphan Works Act
Transcript of a March 2008 statement by Allan Adler, VP of Legal Affairs for the Association of American Publishers before a US House of Representatives committee:
Adler Statement
Transcript of March 2008 statement by Marybeth Peters of The Register of Copyrights before a US House of Representatives committee:
Peters Statement
An excerpt from Peters' Statement:
Quote:
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Among other things, this project has made it possible for authors, publishers and other copyright owners to routinely register their copyright claims electronically. Under the “Electronic Copyright Office” (or “eCO”), claimants may complete copyright applications, pay the required fees and submit the appropriate deposit copies of their works—all on-line.
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Fees? Shouldn't anything I write be legally mine without having to pay fees? I write as many as 30 chapters of my webnovel a month, as many as 20-30 poems in the same period, among other works. There's no way I could afford to pay a fee to register each one and still hope to make any sort of living.
Anyone have any more information on this topic? Maybe someone better versed in copyright law than I?
