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raymoohawk

US copyright law to change?

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saw this on hdoomguy's tumblr yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDoztLDF73I

does anyone know if this is legit? it sounds like it could affect project like this one if its real

EDIT

its also been popping up on deviantart

here are some relevant links taken from the video description

Spoiler

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Artists-Alert--The-Return-of-Orphan-Works-Part-1.html?soid=1102063090742&aid=3vozerBiCPE

Submit your letter here!
http://copyright.gov/policy/visualwor...

Sample letters from other artists: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Ar...

Illustrators’ Partnership Blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com

IPA Artists Alert
http://conta.cc/1KvRTCR

To sign-up for IPA Artists Alert
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/ma...

Copyright Office page where comments must be submitted online:
http://copyright.gov/policy/visualwor...

4 articles written about this:

Trojan Horse: Orphan Works and the War on Authors
by Brad Holland
http://www.jbiocommunication.org/free...

Orphan Works Legislation—A Bad Deal for Artists
by Bruce Lehman, Esq.
http://www.jbiocommunication.org/free...

Perfect and Strengthen Your Copyrights
by Cynthia Turner
http://www.jbiocommunication.org/free...

Artists’ Rights are Human Rights
By Chris Castle
http://www.jbiocommunication.org/free...

VIDEO: An Evening with Bruce Lehman
Webcast presentation from Society of Illustrators (SI)
New York - February 21, 2008
Sponsored by ASIP And SI
Q & A about illustrators' reprographic rights and their right to remuneration.
http://www.asip-repro.org/resources.html

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ill try

basically they are trying to bring back a failed bill about orphaned works. under current law the rights to artwork (sketches, music, videogames, anything creative) you create belong to you the moment you create and this allows the creator to choose how to license their work. under the proposed law in order for artists to have any say on their works licensing, they would have to register their work on one of two PRIVATE FOR PROFIT registries. But that is not all, anyone can do this, say for example steam or bethesda notices adventures of square, well they could register it as their own, and legally be the owners, without jimi having any say, because unless jimi spent time and money registering everything hes ever done, hes work is considered orphan. But once Steam for example registers it, then its not orphaned, it belongs to steam. The law applies retroactively, to all works. And lets face it its a lot easier for corporations to mass register a bunch of works gathered by their bots, than for individual artists to register each thing, I personally dont remember all the sprites ive done, and im sure this applies to many contributers to freedoom, OA3, wrack, adventures of square, etc

the copyright office is taking letters from both US and foreingh artists that explain how this law would affect their work, but the deadline is this 23rd

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No idea what to think about it.
This video is the ONLY source I could find that's mentioning such a thing so it may well be a hoax.

Needless to say, if this ever gets through I don't think the rest of the world would take it kindly and it'd create a serious backlash for the US, if they decided to completely alter the concept of copyright.

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this appears to lend credence to the video IMO (being official sources they are sugar coating it of course, making it sound like this was about work preservation rather than corporate sell out)

http://copyright.gov/orphan/

http://copyright.gov/orphan/reports/orphan-works2015.pdf

guys you dont need to live in the US to send a letter, remember that what the US does has a huge influence on the rest of the world. if this passes it will help only big companies, but with the riskof destroying the indie scene (that's us people!)

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Having an orphan works policy would be a good thing. It's meant to address "abandonware" type issues where a company can just lock something away and sit on their ass without actually doing anything with it, by imposing a "use it or lose it" type of system on copyrights like trademarks already have, instead of simply allowing things to stay copyrighted for the (rather insane) full term.

Maybe there are legitimate kinks in the proposed solutions, but the opposition seems like chicken-littling propaganda by those who have a vested interest in maintaining the current (broken) status quo.

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Those links present the matter in a completely different light, i.e. as a serious investigation of the state of things.

The video, on the other hand, sounds like plain fearmongering - or as the completely inept idea of some stupid politicians - which in any sane culture (and for the record, I'd even include the US congress here!) will be dismissed early enough. I guess if you examine failed propositions for new laws you'll encounter numerous examples of comparable or even worse stupidity.
But whatever: I cannot find anything that could confirm the outlandish claims this video makes. And the PDF you link to never even goes close to what is claimed.

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