From The Illustrators' Partnership

    I received this interesting email today - -thought I'd share it....

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

It’s Back!

Just when you thought it was safe to draw a picture without putting a copyright symbol on it, the Orphan Works bill has returned.

Orphan Works “will likely be a priority...this spring” for the House Judiciary Committee, writes Andrew Noyes in the National Journal, Feb. 21, 2008 

According to Noyes, “American Library Association copyright specialist Carrie Russell said her members are ‘excited about having orphan works legislation’ move this session,” adding that if it does, "’we'll be dancing in the streets.’"  But the article notes that “last time around,” artists did a different kind of dance:

“The Illustrators' Partnership of America argued in letters to lawmakers last time around that the bill was written too broadly and would have exposed artists' work to infringement upon creation.”

And so it would have.

While we won’t judge the new bill until we’ve seen it, we’re still concerned that it may be written so broadly as to force artists to rely on registries or other formalities as a condition of protecting their copyrights. Forcing artists to rely on registries by exposing unregistered work to infringement is coerced registration. And coerced registration is at the heart of the orphan works debate. 

Coerced registration violates the spirit of international copyright laws and trade agreements. It invites retaliation from overseas. It would turn artists into bookkeepers. It would force us to spend countless hours filing and maintaining countless copyright registrations in a futile effort to monitor infringements — futile because no registry can ever protect artists from infringement, which can occur anytime, anywhere in the world.

Since 2006, when the first bill was called back to the shop for repairs, registries have become a hot topic among those wishing to sugarcoat it for quick passage this fall.  We’ll have more to say about coerced registration in future emails. We think it will be central to the debate over Orphan Works this time around.

— Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership

Please post or forward this email in its entirety to any interested party

For additional information about Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists   

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185  

Photobucket Fiasco Info and Updates

If you have been following the Photobucket story you'll know that over 6000 Artists have already signed the petition asking Photobucket to change their policies that allow the illegal display and printing of copyrighted materials on their photo sharing web site.

You can read the original story by Jonathan Bailey at Plagiarism Today here:  

Artist Express Concern Over PhotoBucket

The first update here:

Update: PhotoBucket Petition Takes Off

How Photobucket responded here:

Update: PhotoBucket Responds

And the actual petition is here:

Online Petition

This is where the situation stands for now. I will update this story as developments unfold, and in the meantime we ask that you consider signing the petition. 

A huge Thank You to Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today for helping us with this problem!!

Artist Alliance

I created this blog as a gathering place for Artists. After the Photobucket petition I realized that online Artists need a place to discuss matters such as copyrights. I imagined a place where Artists could come for relevant, up to date information about marketing their work online. A place with lists of links to informative websites, updates on the petition, A place to organize future petitions, alerts about problem companies, resources for dealing with copyright infringement, and a place for Artist's to come freely rant about such.

I invite anyone to join, write, and participate. This blog will only become what the contributing Artists make it.