Topic: U.S. Copyright "Orphaned" Bill News

[Susan B.]

The “orphaned” bill that’s been protested for months by trade organizations like the American Society of Media Photographers was not brought forward to the House on Wednesday as planned. Congress adjourned today, so the bill has no chance of passing this year. Good news for now.

A bit of backstory in case you missed it…

Early this year, the U.S. Copyright Office introduced the proposal that certain works could have copyright protections removed if the author of a work could not be determined. ASMP’s primary complaint was that a great deal of photos and illustrations published online, unaccompanied by image credits, would be “orphaned.”

[TonyP]

Jeesh that's scary An act like that can only be bad for art and online communities!!!

[lauraburlton]

Yea, that is scary. I googled myself the other day and had photos up on all kinds of blogs I had never heard of. Most were credited but some I could not find the credits for( But I still managed to find the photo by my name so they must be credited in some way...). At the time I was still quite flattered but this is pretty scary. If that goes through, It almost makes you not want to post anything anywhere without a big ugly trademark across the center of the photo. yuck!