Orphan Works legislation PLEASE READ

The proposed Orphan Works legislation will be marked up by the Judiciary Committee this month, possibly as soon as this Wednesday. If you have not yet voiced your objection to this legislation, please redouble your efforts NOW. If you click on the links, you can read the entire story in Tess Taylor'sreport online. This is very serious, and affects authors, photographers,artists, filmmakers, and all who create copyright content, not just themusic industry.There are links in her story to various templates and letters for variouskinds of creative content. Call me if you have any questions. And please pass this on to your friends.

ATTN: Anyone with an interest in copyright.The proposed Orphan Works legislation will be marked up by the Judiciary Committee this month, possibly as soon as this Wednesday. If you have not yet voiced your objection to this legislation, please redouble your efforts NOW. Especially those who live in Congressman Berman's district in California, please write now and be assertive. I include a sample letter you can use below and/or click here for a link that will help you find and write to your Congressional representatives - this takes less than two minutes.For more background on the proposed Orphan Works legislation, please click here. The legislation is driven by commercial interests, and creates a safe harbor that will allow the use of songs, sound recordings, illustrations, music videos or any other copyright in any manner by anyone who is unable to find the copyright owner after a "reasonably diligent" search "in good faith." No requirements exist for a "reasonably diligent search" in the Act. This is bad news for copyright owners.Please write to your Congressmen NOW! Take action now,read how you can do so here<http://srv.ezinedirector.net/?n=2329044&s=40254216> .

====================================================Sample Letter Urging The Congress & Senate to Reject Orphan Works Legislation (HR 5889 and S 2913)====================================================[In lieu of sending the following snail-mail letter, you may opt to do so online by going here <http://srv.ezinedirector.net/?n=2329045&s=40254216> -mail, email, call or do all three - whatever it takes!]Dear [fill in name of appropriate Representative or Senator here]------------------:I urge you to reject the above-referenced bills, they are unnecessary and threatening to the future of America's creative community. These bills impose unacceptable conditions on authors and owners who wish to protect their work from unauthorized use. Copyright authors and owners need all economic deterrents to theft to remain fully intact and operative, especially when the music industry is already being decimated by massive worldwide infringement and suffering billions of dollars in losses each year.I have no objection to the creation of a database of current owners of copyrighted works, which would be organized and made accessible through the U.S. Copyright Office Web site. The Copyright Office already has an Address Update system of records. If you wish to make it easier for authors and owners to provide updated contact information on a voluntary basis, please instruct the Register of Copyright to activate this Address Update system of records as part of its onlineWeb site and make it available to the public.I would also ask that you instruct the Copyright Office to make all of its records available to the public online, as doing so would obviate the need for harmful federal legislation like the Orphan Works bills.Please redouble your efforts to protect music as a rich economic and cultural asset, which exists only because of the incentives currently afforded to copyright authors and owners to be adequately compensated for their work.Thank you.Sincerely,[Insert YOUR NAME here.]