Because those bills are
not about protecting the
little guy, ie, you and
me. They are about making
the big guys even richer
than they already are.
Don't believe me? Well,
read on.
A friend has done some
srious digging, this took
mere minutes for her. I
can only imagine what
she'd find if she really
looked. I have permission
to crosspost and I highly
suggest you do the same.
Spread the word, tell as
many people as you can,
artists and non artists.
Get angry and go out there
and do something about
this. Don't let the rich
guys get richer off our
hard work.
"The Orphaned Works Bills
are creating a battle that
wages on all over the
internet, an excellent
sample of this can be
found here:
http://mollykleinman.com/2
008/04/16/wonks-and-librar
ians/
To amuse myself I've been
researching the Orphaned
Works legislation everyone
is wetting their pants
over, people are drafting
letters and poised, ready
to fight. I decided to
take a different route, I
went looking for where it
came from, seeking who
pushed for it, and who
owed favors that might
help get it over the hump
before i write any
letters. This is probably
the most important thing I
learned while battling
politicians down in Coos
Bay Oregon, "follow the
money". I ran into some
interesting data, don't
you just love the
internet?
First of all the senate
version is also called
"The Shawn Bentley Orphan
Works Act of 2008 (S.
2913) It was introduced by
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
and lists Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-UT) as a backer, I find
this odd because Hatch
appears to have drafted
this originally. It's
named after Shawn Bentley,
who was an intellectual
property counselor for
Hatch for several years
before he died from
cancer.
Interestingly enough he
also worked for years for
AOL/Time Warner... who
happens to be a major
contributor to most of the
people heavily involved in
both versions.... $41,100
to Leahy alone, but they
were not the biggest
contributor.Other major
contributors include a
litigation attorney who
defends infringers,
Disney, and TechNet, an
interesting little group
of tech moguls, (sniff:
John Doerr), who do a lot
of big money lobbying for
"causes" that make their
members wealthy....
$81,491 went to Leahy
alone last year, that's a
lot of gerbil food in my
book. I find it
interesting that they are
already profiting nicely
from operating registries
for health care and
financial information, so
why not make a bundle
forcing artists to
register their works in a
registry they run too? AND
they are fighting to lower
patent violation
penalities...
http://tinyurl.com/6gmgqq
if you read the
legislation both versions
seek to lower and limit
fines to next to nothing
on copyright violations.
I feel some deja-vue
coming on.... and I
suspect people are gonna
need to do more than write
letters to stop this. I
haven't stopped digging
but there appears to be
some major money behind
these bills resurfacing,
and some major players,
and they are not use to
losing. Maybe artists
better start taking down
their art and locking it
up now.
I have to say I haven't
had this much fun since I
tracked down the skinny on
one particularly powerful
Environmental Impact Study
company in the mid-90's
that was up to their
elbows in obtaining way
too much Federal grant
money for performing
environmental impact
studies (prior to public
works projects that seldom
actually ever occurred) in
financially depressed
areas, especially along
the west coast. I also
found a link from them to
suddenly appearing HIGH
interest home loans in
those areas that were
defaulted on at a very
high percentage rate,
leaving them in control of
large amounts of property,
some of which they sold
off at a loss to local
small town politicians,
some they kept... the
value of all of it rose
dramatically within a very
short period of time after
they got control of it. No
one cared then and I doubt
they do now, so I imagine
that is still going on.
Edit: BTW, It's
impossible to ignore the
fact that Technet CEO John
Doerr sits on the board of
Amazon, Google, Intuit
(quickbooks), and the
investment company he is a
partner in is the primary
funding behind
Zazzle,(sorta like
cafepress). I also
discovered that additional
donations were also made
separately from Technet to
many of the politicians
involved, in the name of
John Doerr, his wife Ann,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
Byers ( the venture
capital group where John
is a partner)... and under
the name of everyone I
have tracked so far that
sits in power at Technet.
The contribution numbers
will soar much higher than
it appears on the
surface..... we may never
need to buy gerbil food
again.
It is always about
following the moola,
either where it's going to
wind up, or who it's being
taken from who has friends
in the highest places.
I haven't figured the
total contributions yet I
am still tracking them.
BTW, Doerr is Numero Uno
on the Forbes Midas list:
http://www.forbes.com/list
s/2008/99/biz_08midas_L-Jo
hn-Doerr_2946.html
What a great little
capitalist he is.....
I am sure my daughter
Ramie would admire the
fact he has shoveled a ton
of money into backing stem
cell research and lobbying
for it."
More as she finds it.
These bills are not about
protecting our copyrights.
These bills are about
TAKING THEM AWAY. These
bills will effectively
take anything you or I
create and are unable to
afford to either get a
Copyright from the
Copyright office on or
register with the
'database' these bills
would create. Thereby
opening the door for these
people, THE COMPANIES, to
swoop in, and take our
work, giving themselves
the credit, because,
according to them, our
names won't be on it, as
we won't be in their
databases, so the works
are 'orphaned'.
The bills are about making
other people rich. These
bills are about making us
even more poor. It's high
time we told these
companies exactly how we
feel about their practices
when it comes to our hard
work and creations.
Got a couple things to
post about today, I
think...
Didn't get into the Bead &
Button Bead Dreams Comp.
Wasn't expecting to, but
at least I tried.
Continuing in the 'bit of
home' theme, I made a dish
the other night that my
mom used to make when I
was growing up. Once
again, I added my twist on
it. Heh.
She called it 'Eggs
Ranchero', I call it good.
It may not look
appetizing, but believe
me, it was/is.
Read more.
A piece just doesn't want
to be photographed
properly.
Case in point is my Spirit of the
Cove piece.
I took 2 sets of photos of
that piece. Both on sunny
days.
tHe first time, they came
out so badly backlit, that
you couldn't edit the
photos to see the details
without ruining the
integrity of the photos.
Today, I retook them, and
while I'm still not
entirely happy with them,
you can definitely see
details and they were a
vast improvement.
Knowing me, I'll retake
them again sometime, in an
attempt to improve
them.}:)
But for now, I guess
they'll have to do.
I have a new scarf waiting
for its beadwork trim. I
need certain charms to go
on it, and have to wait
until payday to order
them. It's a very
interesting scarf, one
that Mark gave me the idea
of doing. Not my colors,
certainly, but someone
will love it.
I am also getting ready,
as soon as I move Max off
the design table, to fold
an Indigo base dyed scarf
to prepare it for shibori.
This one, if it does
what I want, should come
out gorgeous, with blue
undertones and red and
purple highlights.
I still need to finish my
EBW
Monthly Challenge
piece. I still have
roughly 12 more inches of
branched fringe to do,
then to attach the main
componant and bead it.
SHOULD be finished by next
weekend, I hope. Also need
to finish the commissioned
piece for the guy from
Mark's work. That will
only take a few hours,
tops, though, so not too
worried about that.
Back to work I go...
She called it 'Eggs
Ranchero', I call it good.
It may not look
appetizing, but believe
me, it was/is.