Don't let this pass!!! Apathy=Lost rights
Please take the time to listen to the interview...if it doesn't scare you into action I don't know what will.
Thanks,
Creepy

This is about the Orphan Work Act that is currently making its way through U.S. Congress. Artists must speak up against this Act and it is important for others to be informed about it. This potentially involves the rights to your creations (past, present and future).

Michelle Barbera took the time to write this and her words are much better than mine to describe the situation. Please see below.

From: Michelle Barbera
Date: Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Subject: Please help oppose the Orphan Work Act - stop artists from losing their rights to their own work

Hi everyone,
I'm writing to you because you're a visual artist and/or involved in the arts. If the Orphan Works Act passes in congress, we will lose our copyright protection for our creative works. This bill will potentially affect not only visual artists, but writers and filmmakers as well.

How would this happen?

The Orphan Works Act defines an "orphan work" as any copyrighted work whose author any infringer says he is unable to locate with what the *infringer himself* decides has been a "reasonably diligent search."

What's the impact on creative people?

1.) You and your fellow artists will have no automatic protection for you creative works. Right now you do, even if it's not copyrighted.
2.) You and your fellow artists will be forced to register the artwork with private, COMMERCIAL registries, which will charge a fee per piece.
3.) There will be multiple registries, so you may need to register with more than one and the infringer may not even see the registries you've registered with and take your artwork anyway. For free.
4.) The infringer doesn't need to absolutely find you to get permission to use your artwork, but YOU absolutely need to find the infringer and then it's an expensive, uphill battle to be compensated.
5.) These four points are JUST the beginning.

A great (and scary) interview about the bill:

Here's an MP3 interview of a very well regarded illustrator, Brad Holland, talking about the huge impact of the bill. I HIGHLY recommend listening to it. It's pretty unbelievable and very interesting.
[link]
I hope you'll join me in speaking out to congress against the bill. It's quick and easy to do. Net neutrality is still intact thanks to public outcry. Please don't let something similarly awful happen to artists.
Click on this URL to take action now
[link] />If your email program does not recognize the URL as a link, copy the entire URL and paste it into your Web browser.

Please get the word out to as many people as you can!

Thanks in advance,
-Michelle

p.s. I wrote this email myself, it's not a form letter.