Artist warning: The Return of Orphan Works Part 1: "The Next Great Copyright Act"

[Hardrockangel]

That is one of the fears. It has the potential to be quite hurtful and at the least, costly. Both in terms of time and money. It is a serious deal, unfortunately some people are having a hard time grasping the potential consequences. As one young artist told me "too much legal jargon" which is why PACT is breaking it down for folks and will continue to do so in the coming weeks.

Emphasis mine.

Isn't that just what they aim for, though? Same with the legal jargon surrounding dA's contests or contests held by the studio behind WoW. As long as they make it large and intimidating enough, people won't read it and allow themselves to be screwed over, apparently..

[Tiamat]

Definitely. It goes along with the same "what are you gonna do about it?" attitude that a lot of defaulters take. They know that these days most freelancers don't have the kind of legal muscle or knowhow to stand up for their rights and will just be overwhelmed or intimidated.

[TeenageAngst]

Personally I support this kind of reform. Yes, there is some concern that it will hurt freelancers, but should those people care about their works there are plenty of simple ways for them to protect them. What I hope it will do is disentangle the horrible copyright laws we have in place now and allow a lot more freedom on the marketplace. Now if only they could get on with removing those restrictive patent laws...

[Tiamat]

Personally I support this kind of reform.

Wow. Shocker.

[TeenageAngst]

The problem is art is at its core an idea, and ideas are both non-rival and non-excludable. Add to that the fact that digital art is non-rival and also, by and large, non-excludable and you have the makings of a very difficult copyright battle.

[Tiamat]

The apathy that some non-working artists exhibit is is pretty much the reason why there is a constant battle with undervaluing the artistic process. Fortunately this is being shared enough that they will again come up against strong opposition. By your outdated and narrow opinion its obvious that this is something that means little to you, but if it comes to pass will be felt by a lot of people.

[TeenageAngst]

And by your belligerent insistence that this will somehow rob you of valuable work completed (it's only valuable if someone is actually willing to pay for it) you're standing in the way of the creative destructive process that allows further innovation.

[Tiamat]

And by your belligerent insistence that this will somehow rob you of valuable work completed (it's only valuable if someone is actually willing to pay for it) you're standing in the way of the creative destructive process that allows further innovation.

Sorry TA, you're going to have to bait someone else. If you were a working artist, this might mean more to you but as it is I'm not interested in debating the value of art, only to pass this along to the attention of other creatives on this site.

[KajTaotsu]

Yeah...im gonna make sure some of my friends read about this.