First off, anonymous signatures are worthless, so please sign with your full name. If you are not an artist, nor think that this legislation may affect you think again! Its ramifications would affect artists & non-artists alike and throughout future generations. An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, creative work can become an orphan for others to use without permission. Currently, you don\'t have to register your artwork to own the copyright. You own a copyright as soon as you create something. International law also supports this. Right now, registration allows you to sue for damages, in addition to fair value. This new legislation legalizes THEFT! The only people who benefit from this are those who want to make use of our creative works without paying for them and large companies who will run the new private copyright registries. These registries are companies that you would be forced to pay in order to register every single image, photo, sketch or creative work. It is currently against international law to coerce people to register their work for copyright because there are so many inherent problems with it. But because big business can push through laws in the United States, our country is about to break with the rest of the world, again, and take your rights away. With the tens of millions of photos and pieces of artwork created each year, the bounty for forcing everyone to pay a registration fee would be enormous. If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we\'ve created over the past 34 years, unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won\'t successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free. You can make a difference by signing this online petition, but it would be very helpful to also write letters to your congressmen and representatives. Voice your opinion about how we need copyright protection, as we\'ve had since 1976, that protects everything we create from the moment we create it. This is the case around the world. CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR: Go to http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml to quickly find the phone number, address and e-mail of every U.S. senator, U.S. representative, governor and state legislator. Spider-Man comic artist Alex Saviuk is also concerned about the loss of copyright protection. "When I found out all the negative aspects of the new legislation, it would almost behoove us to want to do something else for a living," says Saviuk. "If we would have to register with all the different companies, we would never be able to make a living. It would be impossible for me to register all my art," continues Saviuk. "It would put me out of business." Think this doesn\'t apply to you Maybe you don\'t license your artwork How about this Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally. You could see photos of your family and kids used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry in order to protect them. That\'s not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations, etc. And even if you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was orphaned and, unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may not make back your legal fees. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement unless the legitimate rights owner responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work. With the pending Orphan Works legislation, artists might lose rights to works they\'ve created. Art is not simply aesthetics, it is witness to our indomitable and creative spirits. Don\'t let greedy politicians or corporate conglomerates rob the human race of this precious and most necessary means of expression. Politicians would have you believe otherwise, but art also plays a crucial part in developing our intellect; scientific studies have shown that children with a well-rounded curriculum (one which includes academics as well as the arts) learn at a faster rate and develop a higher level of comprehension. The arts helps our minds to better grasp left-brained information. If you want to excell in mathematics, for example, throw in an \"art appreciation\" class into your curriculum. But as it stands, we could lose it all. We will look back in history and mourn the great masters because our present-day society will not foster any masters of their own. Artists will become the new breed in the extinction list. Would VanGogh or William Blake have created such brilliant works of art if anyone could just steal it for a profit Would we have witnessed the incredible power of these creative souls if a legislation such as the Orphan Law had been in existence What would these great minds do about this in today\'s society

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