Now is our chance to infulence copyright laws for orphaned works!

[evlbeaver]

Hi all.  I haven't been around in a while, so long in fact that I forgot my login and password so I re-registered yesterday.

I thought this was important enough to create a new account for.

We may be able to influence copyright law in our favor for copyrighted works that have been orphaned.  Many of us would gladly pay a fee to legally use a rom if there were a mechanism to do so.  The copyright office is now taking public comments from people who have been affected by the orphaned works situation.  We may be able to change the system for the better!

Here is the article from the Electronic Frontier Foundations newsletter:
* Action Alert: Help Save Orphan Works!

When you can't find copyright holders, copyright becomes a
quagmire.  Let's fix it. 

For designers, academics, artists, musicians, and filmmakers,
using copyrighted works can be a huge headache.  It can be
impossible to find out if a particular work is still under
copyright or not.  And even when people would happily pay
to use a copyrighted photo, passage, or video clip, it's
often impossible (or extremely costly) to find the
copyright holder.  When this happens, everybody loses.
Artists can't realize their creative vision, academics
can't clearly communicate their ideas, and copyright
holders don't get paid.  Even worse, important pieces of
our culture get needlessly locked away.

Right now, the US Copyright Office is asking for public
comment on the "orphan works" problem, so now is our
chance to make the system work better.  The Copyright
Office has specifically asked for comments from people
who have run up against the problem of trying to clear
a potentially copyrighted work - either for use in a new
creative effort or simply to make the work available
to the public once again.  If you have a story like
this, it's essential you make your voice heard before
the *March 25th* deadline.  Click on the link below to
submit comments directly to the Copyright Office - you
type, and we'll take care of the formatting and
submission.

Write to the Copyright Office today - and don't forget
to spread the word.  If your friends or colleagues are
academics, designers, filmmakers, writers, or artists,
it's likely that this problem affects them!

<http://www.orphanworks.org/>

[mahuti]

Checked the "whois" directory, and it looks legit. Theres a realy email address.. the name servers point to EFF, and the registrants address is real.

At first I thought this might be a spam scam. Still don't really like to give my info out to unsubstantiated people. Has anyone else heard of this?

[evlbeaver]

Its from the EFFector  Vol. 18, No. 6  sent on February 25, 2005.

It doesn't appear to be archived on EFF.org Effector page yet.  The last one in the archive is 18.5 from February 18, 2005.

I can forward you the actual email if you want to examine the headers.

[Crazy Cooter]

There's an easy solution.

Orphaned work => public domain.

[/size]

Why pay?  It doesn't make any sense to pay for something when the original creators aren't going to get the money.  Otherwise I officially lay claim to the "wheel".  Please stop using it until you all pay up biznatches.

Why would I go through this site and not an actual government site directly?

[Ken Layton]

Crazy Cooter is right on the money! If a copyright is orphaned, it is effectively without an owner to enforce those copyrights. This essentially puts it IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Check out ebay user "nikondave" and the copyright fine print he puts on all the repair manuals he sells from long out of business companies/corporations for more information. Here is an excerpt of two things he puts on his manuals:

The copyright owner has ceased to exist without assigning the copyright, leaving the copyright without an "owner," thereby placing the material in the public domain.

The copyright owner has elected not to enforce it's copyrights, thereby placing the material in the public domain.

[mahuti]

That last statement is incorrect.

[saint]

I am a contributing supporter of the EFF. The EFF is one of the most important organizations out there right now protecting free speech and related issues relating to electronic media.

If the EFF thinks there's something that needs protecting or is worth becoming involved in, you'd be wise to at least take a look.

My 2 bits.

--- saint

[Crazy Cooter]

So then it is best to go through http://www.orphanworks.org/?  Because it says: "Write to the Copyright Office today".

I'm all about getting "expired" stuff into public domain.  There's no way I support it being controlled by a company somewhere that has a pile of money to "corner" the market after buying their way in.

[evlbeaver]

You don't have to use the EFF's site.

[Crazy Cooter]

TTT.

The deadline is looming for those that haven't sent anything in.

[mahuti]

Thanks evlbeaver for the heads up.