{"id":201,"date":"2008-10-01T07:58:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-01T12:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/01\/say-no-to-orphan-works-act\/"},"modified":"2008-10-01T07:58:38","modified_gmt":"2008-10-01T12:58:38","slug":"say-no-to-orphan-works-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"Say NO to Orphan Works Act…"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an editorial cartoonist I try, I really, really try to stay away from hackneyed stereotypes. You know, like nefarious politicians in the pocket of well-funded special interest groups sneaking suspect legislation through the system under cover of a larger crisis, say, a Wall Street meltdown. But then this happens:<\/p>\n

Last week the US Senate managed to approve something called the Orphan Work Act. Didn\u2019t hear about it? Well, frankly, that\u2019s by design. I\u2019ve read quite a bit about it, and I\u2019ve included some links below if you\u2019d like details but the best summary I\u2019ve seen is this: It\u2019s one of those laws that in attempting to address a minor problem creates a major one. Say I draw a comic and it gets published. Some time later, a magazine or book publisher finds it through Google, but my name has been removed and it isn\u2019t immediately obvious that I\u2019m the author. To them, it\u2019s \u201corphaned.\u201d As is now under copyright law, the onus is on them to find out who the author is and I have decent legal protection if they go ahead and republish without permission. With the Orphan Work Act, the onus would be on me to find the unauthorized work, and in the unlikely event that I did find it, my legal recourse would be limited and prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n

So off to the House it goes. Hopefully it won\u2019t make it through. If you have time, contacting your representative would help.<\/p>\n