April 2008 – Orphan Works Legislation Introduced
April 24, 2008 — Judiciary Leaders Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral Orphan Works Legislation
H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008, was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Berman of California, full Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith of Texas, and Intellectual Property Subcommittee Ranking Member Howard Coble of North Carolina on April 24, 2008.
Here is the link to a PDF of H.R. 5889
S. 2913, the Orphan Works Act of 2008, was introduced on April 24, 2008 by current Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. The language and approach of S. 2913 is based upon the 2006 language.
Here is a link to a PDF of S.2913
Photo District News reports that The American Society of Media Photographers is officially supporting the House version of the bill. They state, “The bill is not perfect but contains protections for photographers that the ASMP and other groups have lobbied for, according to ASMP general counsel Victor Perlman.”
At least one artists rights group, the Illustrators’ Partnership of America, is strongly opposing the new bill. Their site includes an Orphan Works Resource Page for artists which includes links to webcasts and more.
DailyyKos.com includes an article called, “Attention Artists, Illustrators, and Photographers: Find out about ORPHAN WORKS!”
It includes a link to an online petition you can sign, should you oppose the bill.
Jonathan Bailey from the Blog Herald wrote on Friday — What Orphan Works Could Mean to Bloggers. He offers “several simple steps” that can be helpful to protecting your work such as including proper tags in your webpage images, proper credits, watermarking, registering your work, and keeping your contact information up to date.
Plagiarism Today includes an another article by Jonathan Bailey called Orphan Bills Introduced which includes a summary of the differences between the Senate and House bills. It is the House version of the bill in particular that has strong opposition among visual artists. His conclusions are insightful, however, stating that “ But as bad as this legislation is in many ways, it is actually among the best copyright legislation we’ve seen in the pat 20 years. At the very least, we have to give the USCO and our Congress credit for not simply bowing down before big copyright holders and for addressing a real issue, albeit in a very imperfect way.”
FYI
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