From: "lee gilliland" <leeandalexis at hotmail.com>
To: bwsmof at bwsmof.org, info at www.balticon.org, RavenCon at yahoogroups.com, WSFAlist at keithlynch.net, editor at wsfa.org, Channel_D at yahoogroups.com, Channel_OT at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [WSFA] FW: [RavenCon] (OT)Artists: A call to action!
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:34:49 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Every Day An Adventure

----Original Message Follows----
From: "J. Andrew World" <captnflannel at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: RavenCon at yahoogroups.com
To: RavenCon at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [WSFA] [RavenCon] (OT)Artists: A call to action!
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:08:43 -0800 (PST)

Please repost this!

Artists' rights are coming under attack!
The House Judiciary Commity has an Act that they are waiting to vote on
that will seriously hurt artists. If this law is passed it will
drastically affect how much right you have to your own work.

The Orphan Works act (You can use this link to see where it stands:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.5439:) will take away your
rights to your work.

I can't explain it better than Tad Crawford from Communication Arts November
Design Annual 2006:
"To
give some additional background, on May 22, 2006, a bill titled “Orphan
Works Act of 2006” was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This bill follows the Copyright Office proposal by allowing a person to
use a work without permission if the person has “performed and
documented a reasonably diligent search in good faith to locate the
owner of the infringed copyright.” If the owner cannot be found after
such a search, then even though the use is technically an infringement,
the penalties for the infringement are minimal or nonexistent. If an
owner discovers the infringement, the highest compensation that the
owner can obtain is “reasonable compensation” and the infringement can
continue. The owner is not allowed to seek damages, costs or attorney’s
fees. If the infringement is “without any purpose of direct or indirect
commercial advantage and primarily for a charitable, religious,
scholarly, or educational purpose,” and the usage ceases after the
owner complains, then the owner will not even have the right to ask for
reasonable compensation."

What can you do?

Simply write
the House Judiciary Committee and *YOUR* congressman, both current and newly
elected. Here is a link to
a page with instructions and a form letter to use:
http://www.gag.org/activities/advocacy_materials/orphan_works_letters_2.php
I urge everyone who reads this to pass this information on as well as write
to your representives in Washington.

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