Here is what I wrote to: [log in to unmask]

Ms. Espinel and the Obama Administration,

The Illustrators' Partnership and the Copyright Alliance have notified me of this invitation from the Obama Administration to share my  thoughts on my rights as a creator.

I am concerned that Congress and parts of the Executive branch are ready to ignore the needs of small IP creators in favor of large IP aggregators like Google and those looking to profit from others work without having to pay for it, the "free culture" crowd.

Bills proposed several times by the Copyright office in the past four years regarding the issue of making "Orphaned Works" more available to the public have been blithely considered by Congress. These bills have propose a massive inversion of the copyright enforcement mechanism. This strikes at the heart of intellectual property protection, especially of visual images,  for independent producers' of ability to function as viable businesses. They offer impractical protections that effectively strip visual IP creators of their rights. These bills have also contravened the spirit and letter of international treaties.

There are ways to solve the "Orphaned Works" issue, for those wishing to share their collections, without radical surgery to copyright enforcement laws. Please contact The Illustrators' Partnership for expertise in understanding the difficulties with this issue:
http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/    Director of Operations Ken Dubrowski 781-837-9152 [log in to unmask]

Please do not overlook this seemingly isolated area of Copyright and IP law. It has the potential to undo everything you are trying to do for improved IP protection for the vast majority of small American IP producers.

Thank you for attention to this important issue.

Britt Griswold
Annapolis, MD
[log in to unmask]


Need to leave or subscribe to the Sciart-L listserv? Follow the instructions at
http://citnews.unl.edu/presentmethods_lana/listserv/index.html