The Orphan Works Bill consists of some new US laws around Copyright issues that could potentially cause you to loose your Copying Rights on anything you create from the very moment you make it. The Bill is currently on it's way for consideration by US congress and hopefully will be rejected and put to death with your support.
This bill will affect copyright holders world wide if passed so even if you're somewhere other than the US it's worth keeping yourself informed.
I'm certainly no expert on this bill so my limited understanding is this. Should someone wish to use your creation for commercial gain and they can't identify or find you as being the copyright holder (after taking reasonable steps to locate you) then your creation could be deemed an 'orphan work' and therefore 'fair game' for anyone to use as they please.
The implications are much worse for copyright holders if you research this issue further - which I encourage you to do so you get the facts rather than my understanding of them.
Please Digg and go to the main website linked below if you want to help fight this bill. Audio link to full interview here: Orphan Works
read more | digg story
This bill will affect copyright holders world wide if passed so even if you're somewhere other than the US it's worth keeping yourself informed.
I'm certainly no expert on this bill so my limited understanding is this. Should someone wish to use your creation for commercial gain and they can't identify or find you as being the copyright holder (after taking reasonable steps to locate you) then your creation could be deemed an 'orphan work' and therefore 'fair game' for anyone to use as they please.
The implications are much worse for copyright holders if you research this issue further - which I encourage you to do so you get the facts rather than my understanding of them.
Please Digg and go to the main website linked below if you want to help fight this bill. Audio link to full interview here: Orphan Works
read more | digg story
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