Monday, July 20, 2015

4 Things You Need to do Now to Protect Your Copyrights

The Copyright Law is in danger of being changed in a bad way.



Do you want you live under a law that says, “Nothing an artist creates would be protected at the moment of creation by copyright?”

That law hasn’t been written yet. So we need to rise up now and make our voices heard. It’s not even a bill, so now is the time to cry out.

The Copyright Office is submitting suggestions to Congress that suggests that the public interest in your work is more important than your right to make money off of your work.

Under new proposed provisions

Nothing an artist/creator/author creates would be protected at the moment of creation and you would have to register everything you’ve ever done and will do. The registration will no longer be with the copyright office, but the private sector. They will be for profit registrars. You will have to deal with at least 2 registrars.

One company to register the art. And the other company to register the meta-data; contract with client, sketches, etc. A form must be filled out for each  individual creation. Since this is created in the private sector there may be more hoops to jump through.

You will have to do this for every piece of work you’ve created and will create in the past, present and future. That’s every single piece of art, writing, music and photography individually.

The Constitution states in Article 1 Section 8 (among other things)
The Congress shall have the power…:
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

Exclusive rights to your art is in the Constitution. Do you want to lose that?

What can you do?


1. Read The Notice of Inquiry

Here are the opening paragraphs:

SUMMARY: The U.S. Copyright Office is
reviewing how certain visual works,
particularly photographs, graphic
artworks, and illustrations, are
monetized, enforced, and registered
under the Copyright Act. The Office
seeks commentary on the current
marketplace for these visual works, as
well as observations regarding the real
or potential obstacles that authors, and,
as applicable, their licensees or other
representatives face when navigating the
digital landscape. This work builds
upon previous studies and public
inquiries in a number of areas,
including small claims, the making
available right, resale royalties,
registration, recordation, and the
interoperability of records. As always,
the Office is interested in the
perspectives of copyright owners as well
as users of these creative works. This is
a general inquiry that will likely lead to
additional specific inquiries.

DATES: Comments are due July 23, 2015.
Reply comments are due August 24,
2015.

ADDRESSES: All comments should be
submitted electronically using the
comment submission page on the Office
Web site at http://copyright.gov/policy/
visual works/. To meet accessibility
standards, submitters must upload
comments in a single file not to exceed
six (6) megabytes (MB) in one of the
following formats: The Adobe Portable
Document File (PDF) format that
contains searchable, accessible text (not
an image); Microsoft Word;
WordPerfect; Rich Text Format (RTF); or
ASCII text file format (not a scanned
document). The form and face of the
comments must include the submitter’s
name and organization (if any). The
Office will post all comments publicly
on the Office’s Web site exactly as they
are received, along with names and
organizations. If electronic submission
of comments is not feasible, please
contact the Office at 202–707–8350


2. Submit a letter before July 23rd letting the Copyright office know about your observations regarding the real or potential obstacles that you face when navigating the
digital landscape:

Here’s their official request:
The U.S. Copyright Office is requesting written comments on how certain visual works, particularly photographs, graphic artworks, and illustrations, are monetized, enforced, and registered under the Copyright Act.  The Office is specifically interested in the current marketplace for these visual works, as well as observations regarding the real or potential obstacles that these authors and, as applicable, their licensees or other representatives face when navigating the digital landscape. 


3. Read Sample Letters from other artists:
http://tinyurl.com/artistletters


4. Sign up for an Artist Alert, so you are not caught with your pants down wondering what happened to your rights.
http://tinyurl.com/artistalert


Watch this video with artist Brad Holland talking about this matter.
Like, share and comment about this to other artists:

Remember... Just create!

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