If you are a artist, you may want to look at this., This is very importent.

And said registry will be run by our Good Friends In The Private Sector ™.
Typical Republican stupidity.

What the HELL.

I was even thinking about selling photographs... I wonder what DA is thinking about this. They started a petition to re-allow photography in the New York subways, and it worked.

Actually, this might all be misinterpretation. Read this.

http://tvskyle.deviantart.com/journal/17809258/

I'm sorry, but that article seems to be screaming "scare-tactic"

I don't buy in to "Scare tactics".

A similar bill was introduced several years ago if I recall. It didn't pass then and it won't pass now.

Wait, according to the article Parakarry posted, this IS the same bill. They're flipping out over a bill that was introduced 2 years ago. Ffff.

Everybody should read the article Parakarry posted.

This post has been edited by AppleQueso on Apr 12 2008, 12:21 PM

Whew...good. That's a relief.

I can still make money off of my art. YEEEESSSSSSSSS <3

Oh. Well, good thing I didn't go overboard worring about it.

the founders of most products on the market today are dead we should just be allowed to steal junk from the store and sell it

If you can reproduce them with your own time and materials without removing the original, sure.

Your analogy equates to people being allowed to break into museums to steal original works of dead artists.

I like how nobody read the article.

If you did, you would notice that it's an enormous anti-governmental propaganda, where every two sentences is like "the government will just take it away because they hate you."

Stolen from Artist RTIL on Deviantart:

"for those of you who don't know, the orphan works act is legislation that would allow artwork whose creators cannot be located to be more easily released to public domain. now, this isn't the best bill ever written, but for god's sake people - do some research.

first of all, this legislation never passed into law. they've tried twice and failed.

the last time was in 2005. it sat around and died less than a year later. yes, that's right. it's been sitting around collecting dust and no one has done anything about it for 3 years.


that is until some uppity moron at Animation World Magazine thought it would be a bright idea to bring it up without doing his homework. not only is he drawing unnecessary attention to defunct legislation, but he is also lying to you. you do NOT hold a registered copyright simply by posting work on the internet and calling it your own, nor would this legislation change that. for over a century, you have to file with the government to make copyright. yes, if your work is used without your permission you have a right to challenge that, but if you feel it is necessary to protect yourself further, it's easy to do so. these copyrights would mean the same whether or not orphan works would pass.

all AWM and those of you who have been yapping to everyone about the bill are only harming the animation and art community by drawing attention to legislation that has been tossed aside in the heap of bureaucracy. you are doing yourselves no favors by informing people how to protect themselves from non-existent law. so let it die, and hopefully it won't be re-introduced to the house.

do not send letters to congressmen or US representatives. they will have no idea what you are talking about."


k?

see Parakarry's above post.

EDIT: And to further agree with you and clarify things. A registered copyright is not the same as a copyright. A copyright exists as soon as you create something. A registered copyright must be, well, registered, and offers much greater protection.

This post has been edited by AppleQueso on Apr 16 2008, 12:08 PM

"The love of money is the root of all evil."

So true this is...

has ANYONE read anything on this page?

just did.

But that doesn't mean what i said before isn't true. :p

at any rate, i won't get too worked up about it. thanks for more info

Not according to the government. I have to pay to get a registered copyright, but if I say my music is copyrighted, and then attempt to sue someone for misusing it or re-selling it/what-not, obviously the court will call bull****.


Mostly it's just a gambling game. If the people are caring enough, if you send them an e-mail saying that your stuff is copyrighted, that should be enough to say "okay, nevermind then."

However, if you don't have that handy sheet that says your music is copyrighted, and someone wants proof... yeah, you're going to have to register it.

I am fairly certain that you get protection as soon as you create it in a tangible sense. As I remember, your work has protection as long as you can prove that you had it first. Granted, it's very difficult(though not impossible) to do so without a registration to say it's yours.

I had read bits and pieces of a book on copyrights, though I'm seriously drawing a blank right now

Not in a court. I have a slew of original works of mine that are unique from others and I can call my own. However, if someone steals it and calls it their own, or remixes it without permission, or the such, if I attempt to sue that person in court, they say "do you have it registered as a copyright?" I deny, and they essentially tell me to screw off because I didn't protect it correctly, and they can't and won't do anything about it.


Not to mention other than a copyright, there is no other legitimate way of proving it's mine in the first place.



It's why I don't release any of my original works on MFGG, except for a few WIP's that I don't plan on selling anywhere.

That copyright comes into effect the moment the item enters public view, but is useless. Courts would be very bogged down surfing DeviantArt to keep track of every time somebody's work is publicized, and therefore you do have to manually register your copyright (for about $10 per item in the U.S.) in order to have any noticeable legal protection.

I am fairly certain that if you are actually economically harmed by somebody's use of your item, that you can sue for the harm induced as opposed to the actual infringement, but without a registered copyright, trademark, or patent, you cannot take legal action directly for the use of work or slogans.

This is what I was trying to get at in my earlier post, but my mind was blank for whatever reason.

EDIT: I believe it's $25 per item, but I may be wrong. You can work around that a bit by say, copyrighting an entire portfolio of your artwork or an entire album of your music, which would be treated as one item.

Fully worth it imo.

This post has been edited by AppleQueso on Apr 17 2008, 02:54 PM