Gov Bill will Hurt Artists and Protect Theives

Hi everyone -
I am aksing people to please take a moment to sign the petition for Orphaned Works Bill. If this bill should pass, it would make it virtually impossible for an artist to prove that someone knowingly stole their artwork, even if they have gone to the effort and cost of registereing their art with the US Copyight Office.

If this bill passes, all a theif will have to do is claim "good faith", which is the claim that they made an effort to find the original artist and obtain permission. I already know several artists who have had to fight for years in court to prove that their signature and/or contact info was removed from a piece of their work and used by others for profit. In fact, here is a link to an artists site where her piece was stolen and used for ads for Camel cigarettes! If this law passes, cases like this will never see a courtroom because a lawyer would not bother to take a case where the defendant has all the cards.
http://www.michiko.com/illustratorspartnership/bluegirl/ (click download letter to read the description of what happened with this case)

For me, what this means is, that anyone can copy my artwork and use it any way they please and I will be powerless to do anything about it because all they have to do is claim they got it from some place that said it could be used or that there was no signature or other artist info and they couldn't find out who the creator was. This will apply to all works, art, written word and even your family photos!


To read more about this bill got to: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&page=3

TO SIGN THE PETITION GO TO: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-orphan-works-act.html

To contact your State Reps and Senators, go to: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtmlPlease feel free to pass this on.
Thanks
Kerry