There's a bill which is being seen by congress which could screw our copyright laws over, big time.
http://www.nikondigital.org/dps/dps-v-4-08.htm
Photographers are the most easily hit in this, and thus, the most mentioned. But this regards all copyrighted works. Statues, comics, music, movies, etc.
Note the phrase: "good faith, reasonably diligent search." Vague and non-specific. What constitutes a diligent enough search? Two hours of googling?
Here's scenarios that could very well play out if this bill gets passed...
1. Let's say I like Gabe Perna's Jekyll and Hyde sculpt, but I'm not in deep with the statue community. No idea who sculpted it or where to find it. All I know is that I like it, and I can't find any info online after a "reasonably diligent search." Oh, well. I'll sculpt a slightly new base for it and sell it as my own. And if Gabe finds me, the most he can really sue me for is the licensing fees I would have paid anyway. This basically gives tons of recasters free reign to have a party with no consequences. You like those old Horizon kits? Go ahead and sell recasts, the law protects you!
2. Let's say I'm a crazy racist and I'm making a movie about how other races are inferior to whatever I am. Now, I want to use a song from a band as the main soundtrack to my movie trailer, with images of people being lynched and beaten. But wait, the band is kinda old and that record company has been shut down. No problem, I'm allowed to use it freely, and if the copyright holder doesn't like it, he can make me stop and maybe pay up to what the normal licensing fees would have been. But by now, it's too late. Everyone has seen it, and whenever people hear that song, they think of racism.
3. I want to use the character X-O Manowar. But the comic company who birthed him is shut down. Great. I'll just make my "X-O Manowar Likes to Kill and Rape Babies" animated movie. By the time it comes out, no amount of small licensing fees can prevent the character destruction that just happened. And what if the license holder was planning to sell X-O to this Hollywood studio who really wanted to make him into a movie. Well, now they don't want him, cause he eats babies.
4. A museum is hyping its big "Nature Photo" exhibit. Problem is, when it opens up, it's made up of nothing but YOUR pictures that YOU posted on your Flickr account. The museum has banked tons of cash on YOUR photos, sold prints, art books, etc. You get cut a check for a thousand dollars, cause that's what they would have paid you, a tiny independent photographer, to license it. Meanwhile, they're relaxing in champagne-filled hot tubs, paid for with your work.
THIS IS CRAZY TALK! What the hell are we doing in this stupid ass country? Why are our priorities so screwed up?
