This special episode of EXIF and Beyond features a panel discussion on Orphan Works with professional photographers Chase Jarvis, Dan Heller and John Harrington. With view points that span the spectrum from support to opposition of the Orphan Works legislation, it is my hope that the information and viewpoints with in this discussion help you form your opinions on the topic.
Note that as of Friday September 26th, 2008 the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act, S 2913, the Senate version of this legislation, has passed and has moved on to the House. Considering the recent passage of this bill in the U.S. Senate it is even more important that you listen to the full length of this podcast, educate yourself as best as you can and take action as you see fit by contacting your Congressional representative.
Further details and a chapter listing for this podcast can be found at the JMG-Galleries blog
1 response so far ↓
James P. Jones // Sep 29, 2008 at 11:38 am
My concern with this issue is that the burden is being moved from the commercial user to the artist for copyright violation avoidance. As of right now you know with certainty that if a photo looks reasonably modern that somebody own a copyright on it. But, if the perception is altered to a model of reasonable search - it changes the attitude of the designer before placing a potentially iffy image. It becomes a hell of a lot easier to take a “apologize later” approach and to gamble a little more on a lawsuit because perhaps you are assuming actual damages and not statutory damages anyway - because you briefly looked in the database. . It becomes much more the burden of the creative artist to register everything. (as an aside - perhaps you don’t want to register everything and make it public record. What do you have in your archive?)
I don’t think the current images that are being submitted (the tiny thumbnails) contain enough data to be used for a copyright database.
In general I do not believe the courts will be granting judgments that match actual market rates (as Chase Jarvis observes).
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