Copyright laws are on the brink of extinction.

Courtesy of www.DaleGladstone.com/CARICATURES

(Thanks for the comments to the previous blog)
 
I thought you might be concerned about this.

Copyright protection for anyone writing, drawing, inventing or creating anything is under attack in the US Senate. Please write to your US Senators at this link:

capwiz.com/gag/issues/alert/?alertid=11396676&queueid=2005917906

... and ask them to protect copyright laws.

To learn more about this issue, you can start looking here:

The Graphic Artists Guild

gag.org/activities/Orphan_Works.php

My comments are below:

My name is _________________. I am a _______________working in ____________, ___. I am opposed to the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008, S. 2913 unless it can be amended to protect visual creators and to include, at a minimum, a publicly accessible “notice of use” filing.

This is an inexpensive and effective way to allow creators to identify themselves as copyright owners so that creators may preserve their legal ownership rights. It also eliminates the ability to make fraudulent claims of conducting a diligent search for copyright owners.

If the bill cannot be amended then I urge you to vote NO.

I am a member of The Graphic Artists Guild.

I would like to remind everyone this country's founding fathers established strong patent & copyright laws because they understood the need for incentives to drive commerce. If not for patent & copyright laws, there would have been little incentive for the creation of things like telephones, light bulbs, Tom Sawyer, The Wizard of Oz, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," It's a Wonderful Life,  West Side Story, Snoopy, Star Wars or E.R.

There is almost no kind of business or trade on the face of the earth which can operate without the contributions of inventors, writers, designers & artists. Even farmers depend on writers for things like ad campaigns produced by the National Dairy Council. The crates used to ship & display apples usually have drawings of apples printed on them. There is hardly any common item like clothing, cars, trucks, books, websites or even bathrooms that are not designed by some kind of creative professional.

There is a terrible trend in corporate culture, as well as small business culture, to eliminate fair compensation for creative work. The result is a society full of intelligent people who increasingly will not create anything because they know they will only be ripped off by the big guys. This is why good writing is rapidly disappearing from book shelves, music, television, films & theater. This is why artwork in books, magazines, ads & packaging is getting cruder, uglier and less inspired. This is in large part why our civilization is simply decaying into a vulgar, ignorant mess. This is why horrible specters like Jerry Springer, Tila Tequila, Beauty & the Geek and Howard Stern are coming to dominate our popular media & culture.

If only we could hope someday to see this is not to be the American way.

- Dale Gladstone