10 replies to this topic

[Jim Campbell]

Sorry for the soapbox, or if you've already happened across this on Facebook or Twitter, but this is of concern to anyone creating original material and who foolishly thinks that their IP rights will offer them much protection.

The UK Govt has a proposal on so-called 'orphan' works that they're pushing to get written into law despite their own think tank advising them that it's almost certainly illegal. The TL;DR version is: 'collection societies' (probably private companies) will be able to declare works as 'orphaned' if they are unable to ascertain and/or contact the copyright holder. Having done so, these societies will be able to license that work to third parties for a fee, effectively standing in place of the actual copyright holder without their permission and keeping the money.

The original HM Government document can be found here (400Kb PDF).

My thoughts, as best I can articulate them, can be found here.

You can read a more informed analysis here and, if you're as horrified at the prospect as I am, you can sign my petition here. Lots of cool comics folk like Dave Gibbons, Simon Coleby, John Ridgway and Roger Langridge have, as have a couple of hundred other people in the last 24 hours…

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is a threat only to us high-falootin' creative types: if you put a cute/funny/cool photo of your kid/pet/partner on Facebook, or Flickr, or Twitter, it's only one unattributed share away from becoming an orphaned work, and thus fair game for any corporate hack who wants to put it on a t-shirt, or a poster, or as a spot illo in a sales brochure…

Apologies, once again, for the rant, but it's important -- if you can share the petition (or the link to my blog, which has my argument, plus all the links above in one tidy place!) with as many people as possible, there's a small chance it may make a difference.

Cheers

Jim

[garjones]

That draft proposal is incredibly vague. This government is a shambles. I've signed and shared on Facebook.

[The Lorcan Nagle]

I've decided to move this thread to the Pub, as I think it's worth discussing in a broader sense than just the Creative forum.

There's a lot of attacks on personal access to copyright at the moment, such as SOPA/ACTA/PIPA, and in each case the wording is infuriatingly vague.

[Geoffrey D. Wessel]

Yeah, I've been seeing this all weekend. My name doesn't help squat in this case, but good luck to y'all getting this quashed like the insect it is.

[garjones]

Yeah, I've been seeing this all weekend. My name doesn't help squat in this case, but good luck to y'all getting this quashed like the insect it is.

Sign it anyway, here's a UK postcode. SW3 1RT.

[craggy]

signed up. that's really f'ng terrible. not surprising, really, but still appalling.

[Geoffrey D. Wessel]

Sign it anyway, here's a UK postcode. SW3 1RT.

Sorry but fraud, no matter how minor, helps nobody.

[garjones]

Sorry but fraud, no matter how minor, helps nobody.

Fair enough, it's a decent point. You can express your displeasure on that petition from any country though, there's a dropdown option there. I am a UK citizen overseas, expats tend to be disenfranchised, you get told to get lost in local politics and told the same back home so I get a bit mercenary about it to get my voice heard.

The thing with these laws, just like Europeans took umbrage at SOPA and Americans at ACTA is the internet is without boundaries. Say you share your comic online, someone shares it in the UK, have you just lost your European publishing rights? Millar sold Kick Ass at least twice, once to Icon, then to Titan. Who knows for foreign language editions.

[The Lorcan Nagle]

I wonder if youcould protect your work with a CC license and still distribute it for free?

[Jim Campbell]

I wonder if youcould protect your work with a CC license and still distribute it for free?

There's nothing under this proposed legislation that would stop you distributing your work for free, or would limit your right to do so, or remove your copyright on the work. The problem comes when your work becomes separated from anything identifying you as its author.

As soon as that happens (per the hypothetical on my blog, if someone downloads your artwork, uploads it to a different host and re-uses it on their blog minus your signature), that work is in danger of being declared an orphan and, under the proposed legislation, anyone wanting to license it needs only go to the relevant collecting society, pay them a fee and the work is theirs to use without you ever having any say in the matter.

Cheers

Jim

[The Lorcan Nagle]

Have you seen all the stuff surrounding The Oatmeal? A website called FunnyJunk was reposting comics from The Oatmeal witout permission with the copyright photoshopped off. Sounds exactly like the kind of situation that could theoretically be exploited here.