Berne Convention

At last it may be possible for some illustrators to start receiving reprographic royalties. The Illustrators Partnership has been pressing this issue for  several years. Last April we [...]

Compelling Arguments On September 10, 2009, Marybeth Peters, Register of the US Copyright Office, testified before Congress in opposition to the Google Book Search Settlement. Her arguments on [...]

We’ve been asked for news about the Orphan Works bill. Last June Intellectual Property Watch warned that it would be back during the summer. And on June 11th, Senator Orrin Hatch confirmed his [...]

In Orphan Works Land, no news has been good news, but that’s about to change: [...]

December 8, 2008 The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.Chairman Committee on the JudiciaryU.S. House of Representatives2426 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515 Dear Chairman Conyers: On [...]

Yesterday, many of us received a letter from our Senator, one of the most prominent lawmakers in the country, expressing his support for strong intellectual property rights protections as a [...]

Moving The Cats’ Food The Copyright Office received about 215 relevant letters to their Orphan Works Study. From this they deduced a claim of widespread market failure in commercial markets [...]

The Legislative Blueprint The “legislative blueprint” for the Orphan Works Act was not drafted by the Copyright Office after their year-long Orphan Works study, but before it, by law students at [...]

“Orphan works relief was vigorously opposed by visual artists… And while we have thought some of their concerns misguided, they did a fine job of organizing and getting their voices [...]

On Thursday October 2, each member of the House of Representatives received the following letter: October 2, 2008 Dear [Member of Congress], As lawmakers struggled Friday to prop up private [...]