Okay. A bunch of my artists rights friends and colleagues need to take a breath, because some of you are doing exactly the kind of stuff we hate when the tech industry exaggerates or fabricates negative aspects of copyright. In the last 24 hours, I’ve encountered a handful of artists rights proponents sharing links and comments proclaiming that the Copyright Act is about to be overhauled, that there is an Orphan Works proposal before Congress, and that visual artists in particular must immediately write to the Copyright Office by July 23rd to make their voices heard on these matters.
Stop. Breathe. None of this is true.
First of all, the Copyright Office is seeking input from photographers and other visual artists in order to gain insight as to how this class of creators might better monetize their works, enforce their rights, and more easily register works in the digital age. The office is soliciting comments in the interest of better protecting creators’ interests, and this July 23rd request has nothing to do with Orphan Works, even if there were such a proposal on the Hill—which there is not.
As for Congress, the Judiciary Committee began holding hearings in April of 2013 as the first step in a comprehensive review of the Copyright Act, and the last of those hearings was held in April of this year. Congress has thus far listened to 100 witnesses and, as stated by Chairman Goodlatte, “Over the next several months, the Committee will be reaching out to all stakeholders to invite them to share their views on the copyright issues we have examined over the course of our review so far, as well as any others.” In case you’re unfamiliar with the sound, that’s the proverbial wheels of justice grinding slowly, which is what they’re supposed to do. (Okay, it’s a bit of a mixed metaphor for the legislature, but you get the idea.) It’s also worth noting that the last revision of the Copyright Act took several decades, and the outcome of this review process may not be a rewrite of the law. Hence, nothing is moving as rapidly as your Twitter and Facebook feeds.
The purpose of this review—hence the word review—is not to debate any specific changes to the law, but to assess the Copyright Act in a contemporary light and to hear testimony from experts and stakeholders with differing views as to the strengths and weaknesses of the law in our new technological times. As such, there is neither an Orphan Works bill nor any other proposal before Congress to amend the Copyright Act. Not yet. Those days may come, and artists and creators should certainly remain involved when they do.
Artists and creators have typically been shouted down or bamboozled by heavily-funded corporate shills and the nouveau-savant within academia, who for various reasons have jumped on a bandwagon of hostility toward intellectual property. They are the hysterics. They are the ones who cry SOPA every time anyone thinks to protect IP in the digital age. They are the ones who deflect any attempt to impose civil law upon Internet companies by manufacturing a backdoor conspiracy involving a pair of congressmen and a bag man from the MPAA. Creators cannot afford to to play those games, not least because the antagonists to the interests of creators are masters at exploiting the hypocrisy of others while admitting no such errors in themselves.
Stay involved. Stay the course. But stay informed.
