Departing from our normally cheery news of cool skins, neat programs and new releases, today I wanted to share with everyone some news that could have a very significant impact on copyright law in the United States, specifically in the area of reusing work by other artists.  The US Orphan Works Act of 2008 has two very important aspects that every skinner or digital artist should take heed of:

• Artists will need to register their works with an entity designated by the US Copyright Office.  This is a reversal of current passive copyright policy where you hold the copyright to a work automatically by virtue of creating it.
• Infringement is allowed if the infringer claims that they made a reasonable effort to contact the author of the work.  The infringer determines what is a reasonable and diligent effort.

This bill places the entire burden of protecting work and declaring copyright on the artist, and grants wide rights to those who infringe and reuse others art.  Even in a case where the original author has registered, and the infringer is shown to not have made a reasonable effort, there is very little allowed under the bill to seek compensation or damages.  Your skins here, if not registered with a designated database, could be taken and reused without notice or consent, and as artists you would have virtually no recourse. 

I know copyright is very important to many people here, and that's why I wanted to pass this information along to everyone.

For a good summary on the bill currently before the US House of Representatives, go here.

To write to your representative/senator on this issue, go here.