Copyright Law Under Siege

"As an artist, you have to read this article or you could lose everything you've ever created!

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, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your 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.

What makes me so MAD about this new legislation is that it 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. We lose our rights and our creations, and someone else makes money at our expense.

This includes every sketch, painting, photo, sculpture, drawing, video, song and every other type of creative endeavor. All of it is at risk!"

To find out more, read the rest of Mark Simon's AWN article here.

Illustration by Jon Hofferman.

UPDATE: It's worth double-checking, but I've heard that this is old news - that the bill has been voted down already. Can anyone confirm that?

Stan "Not The Man" Media Files Against Marvel

AWN: Stan Lee Media Sues Marvel for $5 Billion
March 15, 2007

Having just emerged from bankruptcy protection on Dec. 6, 2006, Stan Lee Media, today (March 15, 2007), filed suit against Marvel Ent. worth $5 billion. In the suit, Stan Lee Media is claiming co-ownership of all Stan Lee's co-creations for Marvel, including Spider-Man, X-Men and the Incredible Hulk. Stan Lee Media requests half of Marvel's earnings derived from those creations, in addition to damages and legal fees.

The suit claims that Stan Lee throughout his employment with Marvel retained the co-creator rights to all his characters. In Aug. 1998 when Marvel terminated Stan Lee's employment, he regained those rights. Lee then went and formed the dotcom firm Stan Lee Media as a way to tap into the Internet boom. On Oct. 15, 1998, he signed over not only his creations to the new firm, but his likeness as well. Then in Nov. 1998, Lee individually entered an employment agreement with Marvel, signing over his Marvel characters and likeness to Marvel, despite having already signed over the rights to Stan Lee Media. The suit claims Stan Lee Media informed Marvel of their contract and that Marvel "independently and/or in collusion with Stan Lee, intentionally concealed the material terms" of Marvel's new agreement from Stan Lee Media, the public and its own shareholders.

Stan Lee Media has become a tragic icon the dotcom boom and bust. The public firm ultimately fizzled into bankruptcy and brought on several lawsuits and criminal charges related to stock manipulation. Stan Lee left the company and went on to form POW! Ent.

During bankruptcy, Stan Lee Media dropped its NASDAQ listing and became a private firm. During a Dec. 2006 special shareholders meeting, James L. Nesfield was made chairman and president of the firm. Nesfield is best known as the whistleblower who uncovered the mutual fund market timing scandal, which was worth trillions of dollars

In a Marvel statement, the company reports that Stan Lee Media is being sued by Stan Lee. In his suit, Lee is challenging the legitimacy of the management of Stan Lee Media. Lee currently serves as Publisher Emeritus of Marvel Comics. Lee commented that, "I do not support this action and believe the suit to be baseless."