If you or someone you know are a working artist, make money from your art on the side or are a hobbyist artist this is of great concern for artists and our families. It involves our livelihood in the form of being able to make money from our art now and in the future. It involves art that has already been made in the past. This new US Copyright Act wants to basically allow anyone to steal from the artist legally. Even if you are not an artist, maybe you have a son, daughter, sister, brother, parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandparent, friend, whatever(!) who is.
Why society or big companies (more likely) don’t want to pay artists for their services is shameful. You pay the dentist when they clean your teeth, the doctor when they give you a physical, etc. etc. Artists deserve to be paid for the work. Think about all the beauty, hope, thought provoking, ideas, cultural diversity, meaning, inspiration… all the things artists bring to your life. What would our life be like without art. When artists are not paid, they must make a living some way else and that might not allow them time to create all this that we have come to know and expect.
There is a major copyright reform act about to be voted on in the upcoming legislation. We have a deadline of July 23, 2015 to be heard from in the form of letters sent to the Copyright Office. You can submit a letter electronically! (send it here in this form)
from The Board of Illustrators Partnership:
Here are the Basic Facts:
“The Next Great Copyright Act” would replace all existing copyright law.
It would void our Constitutional right to the exclusive control of our work.
It would “privilege” the public’s right to use our work.
It would “pressure” you to register your work with commercial registries.
It would “orphan” unregistered work.
It would make orphaned work available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers.
It would allow others to alter your work and copyright these “derivative works” in their own names.
It would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.
* Indicate the field(s) you work in.
* You might want to stress that it’s important to you that you determine how and by whom your work is used.
* You might wish to state that even if you’re a hobbyist, you would not welcome someone else monetizing your work for their own profit
without your knowledge or consent.
For more information see this link. & This link which includes a video by illustrator Will Terry and many more important links and comments.
Please share, re-blog and spread the word and quickly! But most importantly write a letter to the Copyright Office.
Feel free to use this logo I made that says “You Can Make The Difference!” Just right click (control click on Mac) and save image as…
This is so important for artist’s as well as people who just gain enjoyment from the work of artists. Please, let your voice be heard by sending a letter against the Copyright Reform!
