Artists! Protect Your Ownership Rights

Yes, again, this is repost. But artists and their friends cannot afford to be complacent while the ownership of their work is under attack.

Congress is considering a bill, U.S. Orphan Works Act of 2008, that would be devastating to visual artist and photographer copyright protections. The bill would require registration with fee for each image – photograph, painting, print, etc. It would also remove current “you create it, you own it” copyrights.

Congress is being pushed by large corporations who would benefit greatly by being able to “use” (read steal) orphaned (unregistered) works. Artists without deep pockets will be fee-ed out of business and/or loose the rights to their own work.

I just took action on this issue and hope you will too. You can take action by sending an email to your senators and representatives. There is more information and a simple prewritten email you can use at the Illustrators Partnership of America site – they send it to the right people, you even don’t need to look your congress people up. Very Cool !