It seems that Congress is once again considering the Orphan Works act. This would change the existing copyright laws to expand what is to be considered an "orphaned work" . An orphaned work is a work of art where the copyright has lapsed because of either on purpose, because of the passage of time or lack of proper registration. It can then be used without your permission for any purpose. Up until now, this has been mostly work where because the artist has passed away and their estate has allowed the copyright to become public domain.

Changes would be to expend this to work by living artists! Artwork that is not registered with the copyright office or with newly created private "copyright registries" will be considered "orphaned" and free for anyone to use. Copyright violators can get exception from infringement suits if they claim to have made a "reasonably diligent search" for the copyright holder.

This is something that would adversely affect every artist currently working today. Artists would have to spend hundreds if not thousands, of dollars each year to register their own work. And this would not even guarantee the same level of legal protection we have today. It would effectively gut any copyright protection we have.

Here are some links to blogs explaining it in more detail.

chaucer.umuc.edu/blogcip/c...round.html

www.tomrichmond.com/blog/

mag.awn.com/index.php