There is something lurking in our congress that all independent artists NEED to be aware off, and that is the Orphan Works Legislation. For those of you who don't know what this is, its a Bill trying to be passed in congress. It popped up about three years ago, and was denied, but its back again, and with strength, and has won majority of congress. To put it simply, anything you have created, from paintings, doodles, writings, drawings, blah blah blah, under current copyright laws YOU hold the copyrights to them. They are yours and no one else's. The Orphan Works legislation, however, "frees" copyright to any piece of work not registered under a commercial copyright registry (which do not exist at this time).

What this means:
Anything you have ever done, or will do in the future, is not yours, it is free use by anyone and everyone until you pay at these so far non existent copyright registries. So lets say you're in construction, and you do a few concept floor plans for a client, he picks one, and the rest get put aside. Someone else falls upon the other floor plans, and use it. It is perfectly legal for them to do that.

Or, you do the best painting you have ever done in your life. Under the Orphan Works legislation, someone else can copy it, print it, put it on a gallery and charge ppl to see it claiming its their work, and its legal.

The Orphan Works legislation does exactly what it says, orphans work not registered under a commercial copyright, making it free use for anyone/everyone. They have congress convinced that this will only affect dead/artists in which cannot be contacted to supply copyright works, but it will do much more than that.

Now, currently it doesn't have enough strength to get passed, but that doesn't mean it will fail again in the future. It is growing in support, and it must be stopped. I am only informing you of whats happening, what happens next is up to you. If you wish to take action, please contact Senator Barbara Boxer [link] or Senator Dianne Finestein [link] (California only, for other states please go here and find your senator. [link] and express your feelings on this bill.

-Aridnyk