Before you read this, please google Orphan Works Bill.


To my understanding, they can only take your work under this bill if they CANNOT contact the owner or find the proper copyright on the work itself.

Basically it's the same thing as we've always had, except now we have it in plain terms for the internet.

You can't take shit and use it without knowing who it's from and without asking if you may and for what fee.

Okay, so yeah, that's good. For the next part:

If the person who wants to use the work can't find you via an email or website or register, the work is considered "stock" and "royalty free". This means Public Domain.

The registering part:

To register your work, all you have to do is WATERMARK it with your copyright date and info. Here's a simple tutorial on how to properly copyright your work. [link] . As a note, you have to use your real name and not a nickname.

Your work, under this bill, is only considered “orphaned” if you yourself are too lazy to bother with your legal end of it. In which case, means you only produced this work for anyone to use.

For this, I support this Bill. If artists want to have the rights to their work, then they need to actually get some balls and put a simple copyright on their work. Worried that people could crop it off? Put it in the drawing so that any altercation would ruin it or prove useless.