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H.R.5889 Add to

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  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | May 07, 2008(8 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 3 found useful.

    This bill is just going to hurt the artist of the future.

  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | May 20, 2008(8 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 0 of 3 found useful.

    This basically sums up the bill -

    Thief: "Wow - that's a nice car, I wonder who owns it? hmm..."

    Thief: "Wow - I looked all over and I couldn't find the owner. I'm going to take it for a drive. "

    Owner calls the cops and the cops find the thief -

    Cops: "You are under arrest unless you can prove that you searched for the owner of the car before you took it for a joy ride."

    Thief: "My friend is back at the restaurant we were eating at and he can verify that I looked all over the block and knocked on the doors of several homes before taking the car."

    Cops: "Well, that's good then. Please take the car to the wash and fill it up for the owner and return it. Then please pay the owner $100.00 for the use of the car for the day."

    Thief: "Sure thing officer."

    Owner of the car: "WTF?"

  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | May 24, 2008(7 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 0 of 3 found useful.

    WHAT IS MEMORIAL DAY?

    My years whirl past me. Swirling. Dry, broken grass hovering in a
    spring breeze. Can I remember my experiences in war? Hardly. Fighting
    for my country, my youth invested, seems such a long time ago, and so
    unimportant. The calendar this year marks Memorial Day on the 30th of
    May,2008. Have I lost something? The traditional Memorial Day, also known
    as Decoration Day, is on the 30th of May. This observed Memorial Day on May
    29th coincidentally allows for a national three day holiday. Such is
    commercialism's capitalistic American display. But why do I feel so
    stricken, like I have abandoned old friends from long ago? Their ghosts
    consort with my floating years, and their spirits coast around my presence.
    Another three day holiday! Memorial Day! Maybe me and the kids can go
    camping? Or, to the beach? Memorial Day is fun! This is the
    inconsiderate, thoughtless approach to this meaningful, and consecrated
    moment representing one three hundred and sixty-fifth of our year. What is
    the meaning of Memorial Day? Is it merely a three day escape from our
    worldly duties? Or, is it the official beginning of summer? Is selling
    more hot dogs at the ballpark the overriding clarification? Many souls,
    sacrificed in war, in duty to America, are wandering. They drift in a
    heavenly place, minus their future here upon earth. Tomorrows were forfeited.
    Given up so our nation would invigorate free souls, aspire them to
    freedom, and justly allow their lives lived as they prefer. Raising
    offspring above restrictions, as they desire. Those lost lives giving we,
    the living, what we want freely. Those are the souls we respect on Memorial
    Day. This means it is a sacred day. Without retrospect, sacrifice is
    mute. Old Glory does not wave by accident. It flutters in the spring air
    revealing honor. The color red represents the blood bloom from those who
    fell, those who clawed, those who cried in horrible pain. Those who died
    fast. And, those who died ever so slowly. They did their duty. When I see
    Old Glory waving on a sunny, end of May day, the pigment red gushes from
    millions of souls, floating, not with us, anymore. They are amongst our
    heroes, cajoling with angels with their champions, conquerors and
    commanders. Friends and loved ones gather, over the rave, witness to those
    who gave more than anyone should be required to relinquish. They did not
    want to yield. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when the
    moment harshly struck them their fatal blow, they cried for their mother, or
    their friend. Then there
    were those, many of those, who knew exactly what they were giving. They
    moved forward knowingly. They lost their lives so their mission would be
    accomplished. Fools! Some intellects can say that. One would have to be
    an imbecile to give up life, no matter what the cause. For a flag? Futile!
    For a country! More pointless! For freedom! What freedom is there in
    mortality? Yes, fools they may have been, but their numbers add up in an
    awesome display of American loss! Veterans' Cemeteries, white badges
    sailing row after row after row upon green grass, almost never ending,
    creeping onto the horizon. Constant reminders of the devastation of our
    human treasure. Mothers' tears, enough to fill an ocean to overflow.
    Sweethearts, broken hearted, reading telegrams. Sons and daughters, many
    unborn, wakening at birth to a devastated family suffering from a victim of
    war there no more. And what does all this macabre math equal? Memorial Day
    is the correct answer. Few Americans know a person who died in war.
    Their family trees have lost some leaves, falling as they fought in one of
    America's wars, or discarded in the peacetime military. We are a busy
    people. We have business to capture. Our kids are in school. We have
    chores. Mundane, or surrealistic. We are a spirited society, seeking
    applications to improve ourselves and our communities. We are a helpful
    populace, always there when the going gets tough to help those who have
    suffered the tragedies of nature, whether a hurricane or a famine.
    Americans are always the first on the scene worldwide bearing their gifts of
    human spirit and abundance. This is why it is so puzzling that the meaning
    of Memorial Day seems to lack substance to many of our own people. Even
    with the day itself. Put back to accommodate a holiday schedule fixed by
    some organism no one knows, yet powerful enough to do so, the day itself
    lacks consequence to too many. Many who never knew a person who died in
    service to America are wrought with the invisible pain of not feeling for
    those who do. Americans take things for granted. We have so much. So
    very much. Endless choices. These options are not available worldwide. Our
    shelves are full. Unlike many in other nations of the world. So many are
    empty or offer very limited selections. Those American fighting men and
    women killed in battle whose souls are floating actually made available
    these wondrous choices we have every day of our American lives. Yet, most
    of our youngsters have no idea whatsoever what this means. They don't learn
    this in school. We must teach them. For without knowledge, they may end up
    thinking, or believing, all these marvelous selections came without
    circumstance. Minus anything. Equaling no meaning.
    Our nation needs to halt and perceive the flags and flowers on our
    Veterans graves on this consecrated holiday. We need to lift a common
    voice of adoration to those floating spirits of our onetime American
    Warriors, and extol them with a salutation. We have not come that far with
    our technological miracles of this millennium to become crass. We still
    need respect. Our backs can not turn from formality. Our eyes can not look
    away from custom. Our voices must not resonate in silence against honor and
    glory. To do so will leave us hollow, only to fill us with that which is
    desolate and lacking potential. This is not the true meaning of Memorial
    Day. The heartfelt significance requires reminding. Story telling. Wisdom
    being passed on from our Veterans to our younger generations. An
    interpretation certified by those who remember the horrors of war. Without
    this core, our society can not remain genuine. It becomes contemptible. It
    rots from within. These floating souls of our lost American Warriors are a
    powerful force, for they live within our hearts. They constantly seek
    justification for their contributions, and they are real within us. Such is
    what our American substance stands for, where character is developed,
    individually is guaranteed, and a community, a nation, survives.
    America enters the 21st Century as the most powerful entity
    humankind has ever experienced. America permeates this next century with
    vast responsibilities. Our children must bear this promise. We can not
    turn our backs on these bygone descendants, nor can we do so upon
    ourselves. Memorial Day offers us the opportunity to express a moment of
    solitude where each of us can personify in our own way what we feel. I
    only speak for my myself, as one who has bared his soul to the dread of
    war. So my father did, and his father's father before him, and their souls
    float amongst the multitudes. My mother and her mother held their Veterans
    after they returned from war, tears streaming down their cheeks in gratitude
    for their safe return. And there were those in my ancestry who did not
    return from war. And their mothers' tears soaked the pillows on beds for
    generations to sleep upon. Their souls are the dreams that drift amongst
    the floating, gathering at the end of May in the breeze of summer's coming,
    in the cool glass of lemonade at the child's street side stand, in the
    cheers at the ball game from the crowd rooting their team to victory and
    enjoying the best hot dogs in the world. Let us all stop for a moment,
    whether it is on the traditional day, or the observed Memorial Day, or even
    at the end of May, and reach for those floating souls. Let us reveal to
    them how much we cherish their sacrifice for our free people. Let these
    memories harvest our recognition of the meaning of Memorial Day in a very
    simple word. And let that word, simply stated be: THANKS!!!

  • by donnyshaw | May 28, 2008(7 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 2 of 2 found useful.

    Lawrence Lessig had an op-ed in the NY Times last week about this bill explaining not only why he thinks it's unfair, but how it could be improved.

    Here's the gist:

    "The proposed change is unfair because since 1978, the law has told creators that there was nothing they needed to do to protect their copyright. Many have relied on that promise. Likewise, the change is unfair to foreign copyright holders, who have little notice of arcane changes in Copyright Office procedures, and who will now find their copyrights vulnerable to willful infringement by Americans.

    The change is also unwise, because for all this unfairness, it simply wouldn’t do much good. The uncertain standard of the bill doesn’t offer any efficient opportunity for libraries or archives to make older works available, because the cost of a “diligent effort” is not going to be cheap. The only beneficiaries would be the new class of “diligent effort” searchers who would be a drain on library budgets."

    For the sake of saving space on the comment board, I'll paste in the link for you to check out Lessig's recommendations:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/opinion/20lessig.html?scp=1&sq=orphan+works&st=nyt

  • Anon-img-ex1 by adelie | Jun 10, 2008(7 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 1 found useful.

    I was going to comment on exactly the same article. The work in saving Orphaned works is a nightmare and the damage caused by this nightmare is PERMANENT! In his Last lecture at Stanford University on Free Culture - http://www.opensourcecinema.org/lessigfinal (must see for all that care about history, culture, or copyright, worth every minute, set aside some time) a major chunk of film history has been lost. Film is a new medium for expression, and in High School film class we were taught it was the only artistic medium for which we have the complete history, since it is only 130 years old. Problem is this isn't true, not for lack of technology, but a copyright law that failed. Older films were produced on a Nitrate-Resin with a short shelf life before the acidic nature of the film eats itself away. Copyright holders had no motivation to save their worthless films, and historians were barred from saving them due to copyright law. well, copyright is 120+ years, and Nitrate-Resin film lasts 30-50 years. You do the math. I think for each work that should have fallen into public domain should be punished at least as harshly as someone could be for infringement, as it is equal to destroying government property, but that is personal. More real is that 50% of all works from 1935 - 1950 have been LOST FOREVER, while >90% of film from ~1880-1935 has been destroyed NEVER TO BE RECOVERED! The films are literally dust! We likely had the last chance to have the entire history of an artistic medium, and we lost it, not to war like the Library of Alexandria, but to our own, selfish bureaucratic mess. How sick is that? If the law that was in place when these works were created still applied to those works, this never would have happened. This bill has good intentions, but would only make the law more complicated than it already is. PLEASE LISTEN TO LESSIG! He is brilliant. If you oppose him, all the more reason as he is a big time Lawyer for the EFF and CC, and IS leading the big copyright cases soon to reach our supreme court.

  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | Jun 05, 2008(7 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 10.0 | Login to Rate | 3 of 3 found useful.

    Isn't it funny how music is getting huge, sledgehammer like protection in HR 4279 and visual art is getting devalued and made worthless by this bill, HR 5889? Music must just be soo much more valuable. It's all about the corporate interests. Artists need to band together for our own protection and fight this dangerous bill. I'm an art student, and while I will never stop making art I'm worried I'll be unable to make a living at it. It's never been easy to be an artist without this kind of stuff coming along and making it impossible for us.

  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | Jun 15, 2008(7 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 0 of 1 found useful.

    Please read the anti Orphan Works petition. signature # 522. It's Lessig's and btw, no one wants any works to be neglected or left to crumble because the owner can't be located, but that should be a completely separate issue from the protection of "current" artists' copyright ownership.

    Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, PicScout, Getty Images, Flickr and other large net sites are the ones pushing this bill. this issue of preservation is just a cloak, it does need addressing, but this is not the way.

    And for everyone that thinks your going to get 'FREE' artwork, go check out the Creative Common's web site and see who's selling ads on the site. Creative Common's now states that they want to impose a fee, in order to be 'SELF SUSTAINING" http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Creative_Commons_Technology_Summit_2008-06-18 (and please note the generous sponsor) - you're not going to get something for nothing. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. The only thing this bill will accomplish is to reduce the amount/size and visibility of art available for viewing on the internet...hope you don't mind watermarks and tiny jpgs and password protected art sites.

  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | Jul 10, 2008(6 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 1 found useful.

    I created the largest digital collection in history. I asked the people opposing this Bill, to consider my work- as a model- for "registration" practices.

    I happen to have many issues with govt policies. Many of the policies, are directly (or indirectly) emplaced to benefit large corporate interests (imho).

    So here we are??? Most people are not artists. Most people are not song writers, video producers, or patent holders.

    Exactly what is wrong with the Copyright Act of 1934? Just exactly "who" is expected to benefit- from the passing of this Bill?

    My website is www.artdeskinc.com

    Phil Sprute
    Art Desk

  • Anon-img-ex1 by gkdaw_usa | Jul 13, 2008(6 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 2 found useful.

    I think if a person has a hard time to spell and can only get a message to some one becouse of a Disablity thay should be able to use what they have to get there messgae across! Like me I have I real hard time and when it was not easy for me to get a message across and I did that and now I'm doing a lot better than I did when I started out 3 Years ago Trying to get a point acrost but still do like to pass on thing's for ather people to see it is called FREE SPEECH! like here read this are we Burning are book's NOW? TOO!

  • Anon-img-ex1 by gkdaw_usa | Jul 13, 2008(6 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 2 found useful.

    I have been asking for help with my problem for year's and I do what I have to becouse I've been Discriminated against. I use spell check but some times it or I have hard time to get it all a crossed like all most every time I type, so ether give me help or just kill every one that has used the same word you may have.! ? €

  • Anon-img-ex1 by gkdaw_usa | Jul 13, 2008(6 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 2 found useful.

    Do you people like for people to read what you Wright or do you just Wright to your self's? I think all weighting's should be read! or should Hitler just Burn are History To.
    You Wright books not and stay off internet in less you have paid sight's and just see how many come to see? What did the Parents say on the Snoopy show WA WA WA WA WA WA!

  • Anon-img-ex1 by gkdaw_usa | Jul 13, 2008(6 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate | 1 of 2 found useful.

    It would be different if some one came in you house and took off your shelf then make them pay it but if you put in in the trash for every one to see then you never know? but if you had to pay to see then . that's right you should Pay then! but now how do we stop people from hearing are music ear plug Police.

  • Anon-img-ex1 by Anonymous | Sep 10, 2008(4 months ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate

    There are much easier and fairer ways to resolve the issue of Orphan Works (expand fair use, create system similar to Canada or European Union).

    The lobbyists behind this bill are Google and Microsoft.

    There are now over 60 artist groups in the US that oppose this bill. The bill is in direct conflict of our international copyright treaties.

  • Anon-img-ex1 by vince | Jan 07, 2009(8 days ago) | Link | Reply | Overall Rating: 5.0 | Login to Rate

    I am an artist with no formal art training. I recently had some of my work published in a book. I did not recieve a monetary payment,but instead recieved two copies of the book and FULL recognition for my work. The point of this is that it was MY CHOICE! I made the decision, no one just came along and decided they were going to use my artwork without permission. I created it and it belongs to me. The author of the book understands that and enjoys helping to promote both known and unknown artists. I am opposed to anything that takes the creator out of the mix,which from what I've read so far, could very well happen. That is a license to steal that should never have been concieved and would be severely detrimental to the art community.


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