FINAL DRAFT COPYRIGHT PETITION for Those WHO HAVE NOT SIGNED YET

This is the final draft of our prologue and petition against the forthcoming Orphan Works Bill. We have 376 signatures so far which I am not reproducing here, because it slows the download too much. We hope to gather more, but time is short, so please talk to everyone you know and ask them to sign on. we are closing the other threads and advising everyone to add their names here only. We are told that this thing could become a reality so it is imperative that EVERYONE add their name. Thanks for putting up with our constant notifications, but you must realize that this is in your interest. We have something like 4 or 5 % of the entire membership signed up. What are the rest of you doing? It does not matter where you live, you must take an interest. Other countries are following suit and if this precedent is set you are all seriously screwed. If you sell anything in the US market, you are screwed. UK too,for that matter, becuase they have a similar bill up and pending. Get with the program folks. You all complain about no work, no money, etc. Well, take charge of your life and stand up for you rights.

We, the undersigned members of an international network of photographers, journalists, filmmakers, documentary makers, visual artists, and writers, are collected together here to make known our profound concern regarding the content and consequences of the proposed Orphan Works bill.


We believe that a free society flourishes in relation to its intellectual freedoms. In order for a free society to benefit from the creative efforts of its members, and to guarantee the fertility and integrity of such works, these efforts must be protected as rigorously as our fundamental rights of free speech, free assembly, and a free press. At the heart of the Amendments to the Constitution rests the incontrovertible belief that the tyranny of unchecked powers and interests is a threat to just governance and the social good. As such they must be subject to the rule of law and prevented from transgressing the rights of private individuals or groups of people who do not exercise great authority politically or economically.


In order to form a more perfect Union, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and to our Posterity, we must ensure that the vitality and integrity of the Imagination not be infringed, and that the life of the mind be given adequate scope and protection for it to continue driving the technological and humanitarian progress of all societies.


The American Constitution states that one of the duties of Congress is “ “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;” (article 1, section 8, clause 8). This providential clause has ensured the progressive development of what was once a small and defenseless nation, pitted against the seemingly unlimited power and resources of the European industrializing nations, and virtually guaranteed that the new ideas and innovative vision of its pioneering peoples would be nurtured, propagated, and guarded for the common good of the nation. There is a clear and vital relationship between our ideas and our social growth: the health of the body politic depends upon preserving it.


In this epoch of increasingly intimate and consequential global ties, we are faced with momentous decisions that test our most fundamental beliefs and traditions. New technology, new means of communication such as the worldwide web have raised issues hitherto unknown and unlooked for. Are we to discard over two hundred years of experience and wisdom, and fiddle with laws that heretofore have assured that we all enjoy the fruits of our artists and scientists while respecting the individual garden plots from which they have sprung? Must we now trespass on these grounds and steal the fruit, while the owner is looking the other way? How are we to ensure for our children that which we have enjoyed for ourselves? How are we to pass on to them the means whereby providential and life-sustaining ideas be given a chance to take root? The freedom to think, to create, to imagine greater possibilities exists only if we provide for the creators a life that affords them the scope needed to exercise these vital powers. Ultimately, we are talking not only of the livelihood of the artists but of the quality of life of all humankind.


The decision rendered by Congress on this matter would affect not only the citizens of the United States but creative artists and inventors around the globe who depend on the substantial US market and bring to that market their fresh perspectives and ideas, which we in turn need in order to make sense of the new world that confronts us. The world’s leading nation cannot act on this without taking into account the effect it will have on everyone, and the precedent it will establish for other nations to follow. Conscious of this momentous role, and conscious as well, by virtue of our membership in the global network made possible by Lightstalkers, of the many filaments of our vital interconnectedness, we who present you with this petition wish to declare with one voice that the Orphan Works bill contradicts the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. It condemns a large portion of the intellectual patrimony of humanity to ignoble servitude at the behest of capricious market forces whose motives practically guarantee that the intent and aspirations of the authors of these works be thwarted, perverted, and degraded. This bill will not provide for freer use but for the abuse of these works. Respectfully, we submit that the Congress of the United States firmly reject this proposal and wait for the promulgation of a bill whose language is more in keeping with the original intent of the Constitution and which provides a solid foundation for the liberal and justly controlled enjoyment by all of our best creative inventions. By Jon Anderson.

by Jon Anderson at Tue May 09 14:22:01 UTC 2006 (ed. Mar 12 2008) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | Bookmark this | Digg this |