Orphans abused.

[One Dead Fred]

The Orphan Works bill getting fast tracked through congress is really scary. Some basic points are:
- It would make any image anyone, not just artists, become an orphan work as soon as it's completed. ie. sketches, personal photos, notes, etc.
- It puts more burden on the artist to register their work. They would have to pay for each image. Not to mention the extra time to register thousands of other work you already created!
- There is no official place to register your work yet, so it's impossible to try and comply.

There are more points, but this is a start.
This gives the issues at hand.
http://www.fanhistory.com/index.php/The_Orphan_Works_Problem_and_Proposed_Legislation

This shows some back and forth on the bill.
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3006/senate-committee-approves-orphan-works-bill

Does anyone even care?

[smiler grogan]

i do i care about protecting artists.

The goddamn legalise at those websites makes my head spin.

i need to read more to form an opinion.

[One Dead Fred]

I've been slowly learning over the last few years. You get used to the spinning head thing after a while.