Don’t be distracted and misdirected by the librarian and researcher spin. Just follow the money to see who is actually going to benefit from it. They are not doing it for altruistic reasons, they are out for a profit, to get something for nothing.

Look for the big picture hiding behind the curtain of spin.

Barry, you’re awesome and I love you, but I hardly think the inability to republish stuff because you can’t find the copyright holder qualifies as a “serious problem.” Sounds more like a minor annoyance to me.

Even assuming it is a problem, however, it is up to the archivists, etc. who want to change the existing law to come up with a solution that does not make other people’s–i.e. my and my fellow cartoonists’–lives more difficult.

In politics, follow the money. The money behind the lobbying effort comes from Google and Microsoft–huge corporations that want to increase their profits by obtaining material as cheaply as possible, aggregating it, and selling it for big bucks. Sorry, but I can’t see what’s in it for me, as a content creator.

I might feel differently about this if this were all coming from librarians, for whom I feel nothing but trust, admiration and affection.

I’d recommend reading this post on Animation Options for a pro-Orphan-Works argument by someone who creates content for a living.

Phil writes:

I mean seriously.. the more i think about.. Where is this huge demand for people who absolutely need to use artwork decades old that it requires an act of congress. Who are the people that will be using this old artwork. Where are they?

If you’re a fan of classic cartooning, you probably already know about the ASIFA archive. Steve Worth, who runs ASIFA, wrote:

As an archivist at a non-profit museum and library, I would love to make the material in the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive more widely available. But unless the situation changes, the treasures we are accumulating will be bottled up in a building on Burbank Blvd. It’s important to be able to get the information out to the people who can use it in the way that they want to be able to access it. The idea of a library being a big building with marble walls and bookcases is a thing of the past. So are archives that make you sit at a table and wear white gloves while someone hands you a box and stands over your shoulder watching you while you open it. Today, the greatest library, museum and archive in the world is sitting on everyone’s desk and it’s connected by a wire to everyone else’s desk. Copyright law needs to change to reflect those new realities, if it doesn’t it will continue to be an impediment to learning.

I wish opponents of the Orphan Works Act understood that orphaned works are a serious problem, and were willing to suggest alternative solutions. What I’m hearing, however, is that most of my fellow cartoonists would rather see the history of our medium remain inaccessible forever than take a tiny risk, however remote, that someone somewhere will reprint our cartoons and not pay for them. (Even though we all know this happens on a daily basis, with or without the orphan works act.)

This is a case of trademark infringement, not copyright violation. It involves the Patent Office, not the Copyright Office.

In any case, are you suggesting that the original infringer claimed to have stumbled across the comic strip and that they were unable to discover that it was the work of Percy Crosby?

I hate to be a crank about this, but so far I haven’t seen a case cited that deals with an orphan work under the definition. I’m not saying that people don’t come across images and appropriate them for their own use, but nobody here has yet cited a case where that wasn’t a matter of simple infringement, which is not covered by this law.

There’s an unwritten standing policy in the NCS of whoever suggests the NCS create a program or institute an organizational directive, that the person who suggests the action then heads the committee and is in charge of it’s implementation

Congratulations Jason.

This would be an undertaking far beyond the means of a fraternal organization such as the NCS.

And you’re right: This “act of Congress” to reign in “BIG ART” doesn’t pass the smell test. They’ve paid no attention to our industry thus far. Why all the sudden interest?