first off, for those of you who requested background versions of my last submission 'morning to night', i posted them href=[link]=49946 <- there. enjoy

now, regarding all the chaos over the internet's late discovery of the "orphan works act".

for those of you who don't know, the orphan works act is legislation that would allow artwork whose creators cannot be located to be more easily released to public domain. now, this isn't the best bill ever written, but for god's sake people - do some research.

first of all, this legislation never passed into law. they've tried twice and failed.

the last time was in 2005. it sat around and died less than a year later. yes, that's right. it's been sitting around collecting dust and no one has done anything about it for 3 years.


that is until some uppity moron at Animation World Magazine thought it would be a bright idea to bring it up without doing his homework. not only is he drawing unnecessary attention to defunct legislation, but he is also lying to you. you do NOT hold a registered copyright simply by posting work on the internet and calling it your own, nor would this legislation change that. for over a century, you have to file with the government to make copyright. yes, if your work is used without your permission you have a right to challenge that, but if you feel it is necessary to protect yourself further, it's easy to do so. these copyrights would mean the same whether or not orphan works would pass.

all AWM and those of you who have been yapping to everyone about the bill are only harming the animation and art community by drawing attention to legislation that has been tossed aside in the heap of bureaucracy. you are doing yourselves no favors by informing people how to protect themselves from non-existent law. so let it die, and hopefully it won't be re-introduced to the house.

do not send letters to congressmen or US representatives. they will have no idea what you are talking about.