Contact your representatives: Orphan Works Bill

New copyright bills that are now before the House and Senate should be a great matter of concern to photographers. The subject of the bills are Orphan Works, images that appear in any context (usually online) without an attached artist's credit. An image is passed from the artist who has the wisdom to display his captions and have image security built into his website. He then gives the image to museums and charitable foundations, whose websites are updated often, yet may have more lax standards. Now an orphan, its artist having gone unidentified, the image goes on to other websites, art blogs, even other people's flickr accounts. Just by being on the world wide web, images will be made more vulnerable to copyright infringement by these bills.

At Take Action: Don't Let Congress Orphan Your Work, made possible by a long list of contributors, there are pre-written letters for those who don't have the time to get on the phone with a representative or senator's office:

"What if 10 people can find me but one can’t? Why should that one person get a free pass to use my work? Won’t that give infringers an incentive not to find me? And why should I be obligated to go into court to prove anything about the diligence of the searcher or the value of my work? What if the same work is found an orphan in one legal proceeding and not in another?

"I believe my work benefits the public by being published through the channels where I wish to publish it. The current copyright law works by giving me the incentive to keep doing this. Please protect this basic property right."

The rest can be found here, along with more information about contacting your representatives in the House and Senate. Please act as soon as possible!

A bill to protect the images of Monroe, Hendrix...PART TWO

Last month I posted news from PDN about a publicity bill being considered by New York lawmakers. The bill would protect the images of deceased celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, creating a kind of post-mortem publicity security. The bill failed to pass at the end of the session.

Now, in California, Senator Sheila Kuehl is rigorously promoting a similiar bill—SB 771—that many, including the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), are saying will give licensing agents like CMG Worldwide greater ability to sue organizations and/or individuals for licensing the image of someone like Marilyn Monroe. The proposed bill is much more specific in its consideration of such parties as CMG, and would tip the scales against photographers with photographic archives, potentially "illegalizing" photographs of the famous deceased..

A Reader writes:

To most people, immortality is a metaphysical concept. In Hollywood, it's a business proposition.

A star who dies young like James Dean or Marilyn Monroe can enjoy a highly profitable afterlife-if they have a good agent.

As it happens, both Dean and Monroe have the same agent: CMG Worldwide, an Indianapolis firm that styles itself as "the premier company for representing the families and estates of deceased celebrities." CMG represents about 250 famous people, most of them dead.

Curiously, the celebrity supporters of California's SB771 are clients of CMG.

From ASMP's website:

The fact of the matter is the recent decisions on Marilyn Monroe by the Federal Judges from the United States District Court for the Central District of California and the Southern District of New York are detailed and well-reasoned and they merely confirm and apply long standing probate, estate and publicity rights laws of the states of California, New York and Indiana.

Worse, this time they are trying to rush it through in stealth mode. They have convinced some members of the Assembly and CA Senator Kuehl to take an existing bill dealing with stem cell research, delete all of its contents, and substitute a retroactive right of publicity bill! The effect of this substitution is to avoid going through all of the normal, preliminary steps that would have been required if the bill had been introduced as a new bill, so that it can be enacted quickly and without notice to interested parties.

The current bill, Senate Bill 771, is being rushed through the state legislature right now by Senator Sheila Kuehl. At this point, it is almost certain to have passed in the State Assembly. It is crucial that you act right away.

Please fax Senator George Runner—a sponsor of the bill. Fax: 916-445-4662

The bill would need to pass both legislative houses and be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger before becoming law.

More Poser-Related Goodness

To help celebrate the release of Poser: A Sketchbook of ideas for artists and models, Tim Anderson has supplied CameraArts.com with a few exclusive features. First, there's a fifteen-page preview of Poser. The sneak-peek includes black-and-white photographs, excerpts from the foreword by photographer Lucien Clergue and Tim's introduction, the complete table of contents, and quotes from photographer Bill Lemon and models Ashley Raye and Kate Taylor. You will also find a sampling of Tim's unique sketches which provide a new way of thinking of the play of light and shadow on the human form. Click here to check it out!

We have also posted a sample model release form for the edification of all future figure artists and aspiring models. Click here and save a copy. You're welcome to edit for your own purposes.

You can purchase Poser here. A great read which I highly recommend for any artist.

Net Neutrality: 4 days left!

There are only four days left before the FCC closes its inquiry into the state of Net Neutrality. This is your opportunity to tell the story of how open, equal bandwidth has helped you or your business. For those of us who do business online, and do not have the benefit of corporate sponsorship, this issue is of paramount importance.

Phone companies like Verizon, AT&T, and others are lobbying to put an end to Net Neutrality, pushing instead for a "two-lane" system in which large corporations enjoy faster bandwidth, while everyone else is relegated to the "slow lane." Tell the FCC that all websites are created equal. Click here to submit your story and join thousands of others who have united for this cause.

There's another fine video here. Also, Tim Anderson has given his two cents in the pages of CameraArts Magazine. Check it out.

A bill to protect the images of Monroe, Hendrix, etc.

In New York State, lawmakers are at work on a bill that will protect the image of deceased persons from unauthorized use for commercial purposes. This permission would come from the heirs of the person (read: deceased celebrity) in question. The bill has been supported by the families of Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, and Mickey Mantle.

From Photo District News:

The bill was introduced May 31 in the New York State Senate by Senator Marty Golden and in the State Assembly by Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein. The bill remains in committee in both houses.

"The fact that unscrupulous quick buck artists can profiteer on a loophole in our law by selling insulting and degrading images of those who are deceased is shameful," Golden said in a statement this week. "New York law should protect those families and institutions that could be harmed by these identity predators."

I wonder what it says about me when I read something like this and my curiosity is peaked immediately. What was done by whom this time? Another curious thing is that the names mentioned above are among the most revered in American popular culture.

Also, 300th post!!! Woo!

Save the Internet!

There are new updates on the fight for Net Neutrality. This video not only puts the issue in plain terms, but also demonstrates people-powered communication (via YouTube) in action. You can read Tim Anderson's article on Net Neutralty right here, then go to www.savetheinternet.com to take action!

NOW ONLINE! Internet Neutrality: Go!

The Net Neutrality Act has many publishers, bloggers, and webmasters concerned about the freedoms of bandwidth use. In addition, photographers who rely on the online marketplace make up a considerable hunk of those who oppose the act. Our publisher, Tim Anderson, has written an article about this issue in our latest. We have just posted it online.

"Today, what (telephone companies) and cable providers want is to be able to control the Internet, and charge even more than we are paying at this time. According to the reporters on the Moyers program, they want to be able to control the traffic, where it goes and how. The analogy of a two-lane highway was used to explain that if Congress continues to work from a “blind-eye” angle on this subject, then the telcos would be able to select, for example only, eBay to get a “fast” lane, and Google only to get to use the “slow” lane. Of course, I am paraphrasing the subject, but my point is that if the telcos/cable providers and Congress continue to go in the direction they are moving, then we small businesses (us little guys, again), as well as the every-day consumer, will get the proverbial shaft. Please go to PBS’s site to find out more about this timely and VERY important subject."

Moveon.org also has a petition to keep this act from passing into law as written. You can check it out here.