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I learned of a blog post on The White House with the above title.  Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.  She states in part:

“My job is to help protect the ideas and creativity of the American public.  … Infringement of intellectual property can hurt our economy and can undermine U.S. jobs. … We want to be able to reduce the number of infringing goods in the United States and abroad.  The examples are almost endless: counterfeit car parts, illegal software, pirated video games, knockoff consumer goods, dangerous counterfeit medicines, and many other types of products – including very sophisticated technology.”

I am not sure if anyone read a post by Kimberly Shaw, but she is an illustrator of various tea cup designs, and her work appears to have ended up on a fabric line (that is being marketed towards quilt makers) without her knowledge or consent.  You can read about it here. Kim filed suit about a year ago, and the matter is still ongoing.  But if you take a look at her post, you can see she has a strong case, but she is an individual going up against a large company.

While I am all for sharing of information, helping others, and so on, this type of thing is awful.  So, if you’re interested, check out the White House blog post to see whether you’d like to send an email — not so much about how violations risk health or safety, but rather how diluting copyright laws (such as the Orphan Works Act that periodically crops up from time to time) can negatively affect how an individual earns a living.

I had some requests for the widget that appears on the right of this blog.  With Brenda’s permission, I’ve provided complete HTML code that you can copy and paste directly into your blog’s widget page or add to your links page.  Click the “Read” link which follows for the code. (more…)

Brenda Pinnick is an award-winning artist and designer who created this free poster.  She encourages you to download, print, and use to and help spread the word to stop of current Orphan Works legislation.  The poster is sized to print at 11×17 at 300 dpi. To download, click the poster to load the larger version.  Then either right-click on it and select save image, or click on the image and drag it directly to your desktop.

Please also sign the petition to strongly oppose Senate Bill 2913 and House of Representatives Bill 5889 (The Orphan Works Act of 2008) before Congress.  Although there are some differences between the bills, they are both highly problematic and should not pass as currently written. The legislation is moving extremely quickly in both the Senate and House, and there has not been sufficient time allowed for those who it will impact to voice our concerns.

Visit the Orphan Works Opposition Headquarters site to keep up with the latest developments.

Understanding the Orphan Works Controversy, May 23, 2008, by Leonard D. DuBoff and Christy O. King and published in the Artist’s Network (publisher of The Artist’s Magazine, The Pastel Journal, and Watercolor Artist).

“…It is clear that the rights of copyright owners—such as artists, photographers, writers and other creators of copyrighted works—must be balanced against the rights of those who desire to reproduce those copyrighted works for educational, institutional or other purposes. Balancing conflicting interests is never easy but must often be undertaken for societal purposes. …”

The Orphan Work You Save Coule Be Your Own
published in Voice: AIGA Journal of Design
by David Rhodes (president of the School of Visual Arts in New York since 1978)
June 3, 3008

“This Congress—unable or unwilling to bring to an end an increasingly unpopular war, or to provide relief for those who are about to lose their homes to foreclosure—has decided to invest its efforts in changing the copyright law as we know it, sharply curtailing the rights to your creative output given to you in earlier legislation. They propose to do this through a bill called the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008.”
Read the full article here.

To make sending a letter in opposition to the Orphan Works legislation easier, there are two links you can visit.

Insert your zip code, complete the form (which is semi-completed for you), hit the submit button, and a letter of opposition will be sent to your Senators and your Congressman.

Senators:

Congressman:

It should only take a couple minutes to do this.

Also, please visit the Orphan Works Opposition Headquarters to read the lastest Action Plan. It includes information on writing to the Congressional Leaders at their DISTRICT offices and calling your Senators and Congressman and asking them to vote NO on the bills.

Rob Ruggiero, Director of Publications and Public Information for Quilts, Inc. asked if I’d write a short article on the Orphan Works legislation for the International Quilt Association website. I did. You can read it here.

Please bookmark and visit regularly “Orphan Works Opposition Headquarters” for the latest news on the Orphan Works legislation. Each time the group gives me news, I will post it as soon as possible.

The International Quilt Association is now officially on the opposition list!

From Joanne Fink:

David Brog, former Chief of Staff for Senator Arlen Specter says the ‘magic number’ of communications (phone calls, letters, e-mails, post-cards, etc.) is 1,000. He says if an office gets over a thousand pieces of correspondence on one particular issue they start to pay attention. So I guess our goal is to make sure that every Senator and Congressman/woman receives at least 1,000 pieces of mail. Apparently they do not all have to be from constituents, although it is better if they are.

United States Senate — provides names, addresses, telephone numbers, and website link for Senators of the 110 Congress.

There is an op-ed piece in today’s NY Times called “Little Orphan Artworks” by Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford.

It starts:
“CONGRESS is considering a major reform of copyright law intended to solve the problem of “orphan works” — those works whose owner cannot be found. This “reform” would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public.”

Read the 10 things you can do to help oppose the Orphan Works legislation, which follows below. Note that the Craft and Hobby Association are actively opposing the legislation.

Also below is a Press Release that you can send to local papers and anyone else that you think may spread the information.

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Joanne Fink gave me permission to post this letter, which she sent to the Senate today. She tells me, “the Senate was supposed to have had a meeting today, and (from what the lobbyist told me this afternoon) the bill will be introduced to the floor any time in the next two weeks. My guess is that the time is now… because once it gets to the floor it will be too late.”

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A couple people wrote to note that the link to the website below with the link to a sample letter was hard to find. Thus, here is the link to a Word document containing a sample letter you can customize as needed. Then send it to your Senator and Representatives. The letter comes from Orphan Works.

Here are some helpful links (which are also included in a prior post):

FYI

• Congress.org — provides information on your local, state, and federal officials.
• United States Senate — provides names, addresses, telephone numbers, and website link for Senators of the 110 Congress.
• Write your Representative — this site helps you find your Congressperson and offers contact information.
• House of Representatives — this site includes information on the Members of the House.

Go to my April 28th, April 12th, and March 31st posts for more links and info.