First SOPA now the Orphaned Works Act. Get it together, Congress!

Remember SOPA, the anti-piracy bill that had the internet using art community in a mighty uproar?  The SOPA Bill was a good idea on paper, let's make pirating difficult for art theives.  Sounds legit --only in reality it was about as effective as trying to kill a housefly with a shotgun. Like our government was going to actually devote time and tax dollars to go busting every pre-teen hopeful singing along to Justin Beiber on You Tube?  Sorry about that but my point there was to illustrate how much of a NON threat something like this would be to a major recording star like the Beibs and how little SOPA would do to counteract real piracy.  Argh!

Well now the pendulum is about to swing the other way with the Orphaned Works and Mass Digitization Act.  Orphan works are copyrighted works in which the author cannot be identified or contacted.  Right now the law says that orphaned work cannot be used in new work or distributed or circulated.  But if this bill passes art theives can use work that appears to have no owner provided that they've done an "extensive" search for the author.  Right. Just for shiggles I once tried to trace a drawing of mine I saw someone had posted on Pinterest just to see who had started the pin. I never did find them and I knew where the orginal drawing was!  Basically you can use someone else's work, claim you "looked" for the owner but couldn't find them and then go right on using it without repercussion should the angry author step forward and demand you knock it off or, heaven forbid, pay them. 

The Orphaned Works Bill also would have every blogger, artist, writer  anybody who creates anything HAVE to register their work with the US Copyright Office or whatever you've created would be considered Orphaned Work.  Some say this is an infringement on free speech and allows big government to track our every move.  I say it's more like an infringement on my right to not be bothered with stuff that's a big pain in the ass. So, what can be done?

Well for one, firing off angry emails voicing your concerns to your Congressman is only a small pain in the ass.  Click this link to find the name and email of your Congressman or woman and then send them a copy of the letter I've written below or write your own. 

Dear Congressman _______,

I am writing this letter to ask you to vote against Senate Bill 2913 and House of Representatives Bill 5889 (The Orphan Works Act of 2008) before Congress. I strongly oppose this bill because it infringes upon my rights as an artist and any person who expresses themselves creatively.

The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (S.2913) and (H.R.5889) has negative implications for all artists from young children crayoning their first drawings to commercially successful artists.  This bill is would undermine existing United States and International copyright laws that protects artists, cartoonists, photojournalists, multimedia journalists, writers, illustrators, videographers, musicians, American citizens, and all people who create art. This bill would seek to allow small time art thieves and big companies alike to use and profit from my work without permission and, should they be caught, suffer no repercussions provided that they claim they couldn't find me to ask permission.

 As of right now I have the right to decide how my drawings, illustrations, photographs, videos, music  or writings are used -- or NOT used.   All I need to do to exercise this right is to create something and sign my name to it to implement my copyright.   The strong protection of this right helps prevent any one person, company, institution or government from gaining control over my art and images without my permission. I am against any law that directly or indirectly undermines that right and so should you be.

 Please, vote against the Orphan Works Act.

Thank you,

(your name here)

 

Watermarking--a wee tutorial

It's a sad truth. There are unscrupulous people out there who will simply right click and save a picture off of the internet and then paste it onto their site as their own. Or, worse yet, they upload it to Zazzle or Photobucket or similar, make a bunch of things with YOUR image and sell them. It happens. You don't want it to be your picture. Now, watermarks can be Photoshopped out, but it is a long arduous process and even if you remove it, the picture will never look as good as the original. It's a very good chance that someone who can't be bothered creating their own art to sell isn't going to have the time or skills to bother with all of that. Fortunately, adding a watermark to a picture is a lot easier than removing one!

Step one: Open your picture in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. You can also use Corel Draw. Immediately, before you do anything else, save the file under a new name.  Call it "picturewtrmk" or "picturecopy" something that indicates that it's not your original scan.  Now you can start editing.   Down in the bottom of your layers menu, there is a little icon that looks like a paper pad. Click to make a new layer.

Step two: From your tools menu, click on the "T" to make a text layer. It will show you the bounding box over your picture. Adjust the size of your text so that it is as wide as your picture.

Step 3: To get that copyright mark, open your character map. You can find it in your start menu under accessories. Select and copy the mark. Not all fonts have this mark so you may just want to use a regular font like Arial.

Type in your mark.* I usually prefer the Blackadder font, but I used Arial here so you can see it better. I also use white text because it fades well and blends with your photo rather than compete with it.

Now set your opacity to about 50%. If you have a lot of busy detail in your pic like this one, you may want to set it higher. Fiddle with it until it looks the way you want it to.

You want it to be visible, but not look like it was stamped over your picture. Sort of like it was drawn on there with water (hence the name.)


Then, flatten your image by choosing 'merge down' from the layers palette and save. 
Viola!
And that's it.

This is what the US copyright office has to say about the subject:
* Form of Notice for Visually Perceptible Copies
The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all
the following three elements:
1 The symbol © (the letter C in a circle), or the word
“Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”; and
2 The year of first publication of the work. In the case of
compilations or derivative works incorporating previously
published material, the year date of first publication of
the compilation or derivative work is sufficient. The year
date may be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural
work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is
reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery,
jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful article; and
3 The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an
abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a
generally known alternative designation of the owner.
Translation: You write "copyright, the © or Copr." on it, it's yours for the rest of your life plus 95 years after. For more information you can go to: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf