Author: Marcus Teague (---.dllstx.fios.verizon.net)
Date: 04-14-08 00:40
Someone gave me this article written by Mark Simon found here:
http://mag.awn.com/?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605
It took me awhile to figure out just what he's talking about. I e-mailed the guy to make sure I had it straight.
You may have heard of this and have probably passed it off, but in there is a very simply explaination.
We all know, at present, your work is copyrighted the moment you finish writing, painting, sketch, or snapping the picture. To be protected, you don't have to register, though registering your work gives you some legal advantages. But essentially, people can't just pick up your written work and make money off of it, legally anyway.
What this proposed legislature will do is revoke that copyright. Instead, your work is PROTECTED the moment you PAY TO REGISTER it through a PRIVATE COMPANY. It will make any work (any picture you have on MySpace, Photobucket, etc., any story you have on any Internet database, any family photo anywhere) automatically an orphaned work (a work to which the artist cannot be found); and any orphaned work is a work NOT PROTECTED THROUGH REGISTERY TO A PRIVATE COMPANY (according to the new Bill).
Someone can put your random family photo in a magazine, get it registered, and have all the copyright protection. You can go to court powerless because the picture's copyright is under the person who registered it.
Even if you do register, its extremely difficult to specifically find a picture you did register, maybe through this company, but not that one.
Congress has and will pass laws that are illegal, even under the Constitution.
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