Firstly, I ask that you do your own research on the Orphan bill to form your own opinion. However, I feel as though this is something I've got to bring up out of personal conscious. The term "Orphan" is not accurate and is a misnomer. Instead it means any work of art in which the artist cannot be found without a "diligent search" for the original creator. I do not support this bill as it stands. There's a lot of false information on the internet and its making it difficult to get a point across.

Please go to Gag.org to stay up to date on the bill. You can download the actual bills here, which are long and boring to read.

For people who are completely confused, here is a back and forth article between someone who supports the bill (first paragraph) and then the responses from artists, professional artists, lawyers for artists, etc. It's very informative, less about the actual law and more about concerns with the law since you can hear multiple opinions. Learn about artists concerns about the bill (Please pay close attention to what the artists and art lawyers have to say in reply to the article).
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The following is a premade letter stating my opinions on the matter that I will be sending to my representative. The letter is an adaption from a photography forum and states my opinions on the matter. You are free to copy and send to your representatives if you feel so inclined. Let me know if you see anything I need to change:

Re: Orphan Works Copyright Legislation

Dear (Senator or Representative) _____________:

The amendment to the Copyright Act proposed by the U.S. Copyright Office is a disaster in the making for independent creators of visual works. Photographers will suffer from this law as their images are published without any kind of credit line, copyright notice, or other form of attribution. Credits are unusual in print publications, and are virtually non-existent on the Internet. Without names attached to them, most published images will likely become Orphan Works. As an illustrator, my concern extends to my illustrative body of works as well. The terms under which the bill extends seems to be slighted toward big business and away from the 65% of all professional artists who freelance. There are too many gray areas in which this bill can cause big problems for independent businessmen and women. I’ve been reading a lot of buzz in the artistic community and I can’t find one person who operates an independent artist who supports this bill or sees that the change would be necessary.

With the payment that independent artists developing careers in the United States already receive, paying copyright fees to register every artwork is going to be a nightmare. We rely heavily on our name and brand to carry us as an artist without fear of repercussion from dealing with orphan works in addition to our already overstrained schedules. If the bill is passed we will also have to concern ourselves with people who crop our signature and copyright information and then pass it to a third party even if we do that the time out to make sure our work is carefully marked.

The proposal for dealing with Orphan Works is based on an erroneous assumption on the part of the Copyright Office: See footnote 378 on page 115 of Copyright Office report, "…The likelihood of statutory damages or attorneys' fees being awarded in an orphan works case is probably low, given that for those remedies to be available, the work must have been registered prior to infringement, see 17 U.S.C. section 412, and if a work is registered it is unlikely that the copyright owner is unlocatable through a diligent search." This simply is not true for published works of visual images. Without credit lines or other attribution, there is no way to know a name in most cases. Credit lines are not standard for all works of art and it just seems to be an additional hurdle for artists.

At a minimum, I ask that you please include a provision that will allow statutory damages and recovery of attorney's fees, when a user of an apparent Orphan Work refuses to pay after receiving a demand from the copyright owner. It is of my opinion that current law as it is does what it needs to protect visual artists, for that reason I request that this law be rejected completely. Fair use and current copyright law work to preserve the integrity of both artists and the community. For that reason, I ask that under ideal circumstances that the bill would be rejected completely.

I see why the Copyright Office and big business such as Google want to support the bill as it will benefit them, however it will put many independent artists out of business. Franklin D. Roosevelt made the U. S. internationally known for the arts by supporting independent artists. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The arts cannot thrive except where men are free to be themselves and to be in charge of the discipline of their own energies and ardors.” The passing of this bill would be a huge step backwards in the enormous progress we have made in the arts.

Thank you,
(your name)

Sorry, no pics posted yet. I'm back to work as usual and everything piled up on me while I was away. :3 I had an excellent time. Not so much the party animal, but I found ways to keep myself entertained, nonetheless. Got two new manga artbooks.

I rode down and back on the Amtrak train. Eating on a train isn't easy, but it was fun. ^^

I went to the aquarium and saw...jellyfish...and an assortment of other critters. I've got pics from the aquarium. I went to NOMA and get pics from Renoir and a bunch of other famous dead people's artwork. The blue dog exhibit was closed off to photography. So no photos of that. I did take pictures of my favorite painting of NOMA, a huge painting with hundreds of flying birds at sunset. I had to fight for it too. It was right in front of blue dog exhibit and they prohibited photos of blue dog exhibit. I had to argue them down to tell them I was trying to take a photo of something unrelated to the prohibited exhibit. I told them to through me out, but I was going to get a photo of the bird painting. I take my art seriously...

While I was there I had coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde at 4am, went to the French Market, drank Absinthe for the first time, ate all kinds of new foods, went to the cemetery with all the above ground crypts, bought cute new wedge heels, got some lovely illustrated tarot cards, walked and walked. Then I bandaged up my bloody feet and came home. The weather was nice and I enjoyed myself alot.

So that's the official report. Working on a new piece of manga artwork for my portfolio. God I love the way that sounds. I spent 8 hours the other day on a business card design for a client. I did an illustrative house which took me a whole hour to draw. It was all the design work and finishing that took so long. I really hate that. I'm glad I'm moving away from that...I just want to draw and paint. Really, truly.

I've been in a super talkative mood today...sort of random too. Okay anyway. I'm working on two huge books, my ethical guidelines book and I need to finish my fibromyalgia text, too. Then I want to start studying Japanese. It's been on my to-do for a while.

Man, I could go for some Excel Saga right now. O.o o.O Have a killer April (whats left of it). Well wishes to you all. Salud.

I've taken off from work this week to get my trip to New Orleans planned. I'll take lots of photos on the trip. I'll be riding the train down and going to the aquarium and New Orleans Museum of Art, among other places. The artist who did the "Blue Dog" series will have his lifetime of work up. There's a music festival this weekend so its sure to be busy. I'll take pics for you guys to see.

Went shopping for the first time in forever, got some new jeans, shoes, and several purses. I got some cute new wedge shoes. Don't know if I'll wear these as I am going to be doing a lot of walking, but you never know. I've been in dire need of a style update for a while, but when you spend so much time working its hard to keep it up.

I will try to get some work done as soon as I get back, but I have some personal stuff to take care of when I get back, contact lens and calling the sleep clinic. My great grandmother has been sick and I've had to drive out of town a lot to spend time with her.

The website's all new look is up and going, after a week holed up with my mac and skipping playtime. It's been eat, sleep, code. X.x New and shiny things to check out and play around with. Now, there's a sketchblog tab on my site. You can get a daily feed of sketches by subscribing to the RSS feed (orange button on the sketchblog. So please go check it out.
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I'm working hard to get all this marketing and design stuff done so I can get back to drawing and illustrating. :3

I hope all my fellow deviants are doing well. All my friends, I've got you in my thoughts daily. I'll talk to you once I get all these little jobs I've got taken care of. Take care.

Logo Redesign In Progress
Website Update Done!
Sketch Blog Done!
Pepper and Wanda Friendship, Pepper Project Done.
2008 Marketing Package In Progress....forever O.o
Midsouth Pets Logotype In progress.
Morris Construction Business Card Layout Holding until other projects are done.

The sketchblog has launched. You can view it here: ->
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It took a long time to get this working, but I'm glad its up and going. If you like my sketches and quick paintings I'll probably post them here. I can easily upload them to my server and be done with them. It seems like I never have time to get sketches up at DA. :3 It'll be essentially a library of all my sketch stuff. Things you normally don't get to see. ^^

I'm holed up in my house working furiously on site updates and projects. I need to get them done in a speedy fashion. I'm also working on my house, tiling my kitchen floor and working on my deck outside. It's going to keep me super busy next month.

I am also having family issues and will be spending a lot of time dealing with those responsibilities first and foremost. So, I'll probably be slow getting things updated or email answered. you guys. Take care.

Website Update Layout Done. Implementation in process.
Sketch Blog Setup DONE!
Pepper and Wanda Friendship, Pepper Project Done.
2008 Marketing Package In Progress....forever O.o
Midsouth Pets Logotype In progress.