Heinrich Bauer, the German publishing group who now owns a large chunk of the consumer magazine publishing and radio empire formerly known as EMAP (£1.1Bn sale in November 2007), have a new contract which they are seeking to impose on freelance photographers. It is, even by the increasingly feudal standards of the industry, a landmark in predatory unreasonableness that fails to recognise freelances are small businesses, not serfs. Quite honestly, only an idiot would sign it.

There is a new petition against the proposed Orphan Works Act 2008, which is able to be signed by anyone anywhere in the world. The organisers are aiming for 1 million signatures. So far, 1,200 have signed including Lawrence Lessig, the free culture and Creative Commons advocate who earlier suprised many with his opposition to the Bills.

The EC, apparently keen not to be outdone by the US for stupidity on the issue of untraceable authors, has launched a website of Orphan Works images.

As the press release describes it:

MILE's potential solution to image copyright theft sparks controversy
Malta, 4th June 2008 - The MILE Project launches its Orphan Works
database at a major conference during the international CEPIC congress 2008 in Malta. MILE - Metadata Image Library Exploitation - is a project funded by the EC which works towards harmonizing cataloguing standards for all image collections within the European Union.

Carolyn Wright's Photo Atttorney blog reports Another IP Attorney Fights Orphan Works

Tammy L. Browning-Smith, an IP attorney specifically for those in the Creative Industries, has posted a copy of her letter to the House of Representatives regarding concerns about Orphan Works on her blog and has given permission for it to be posted here:

The letter itself is well worth a read, pointing out that 'THIS IS A SERIOUS BILL WITH SERIOUS ECONOMIC IMPACT' which retrospectively undermines the US 1976 Copyright Act and violates international treaties. A few choice extracts:-

There is a new opposition group to the US Orphan Works Act 2008 at http://www.owoh.org/

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has become the first UK organisation representing photographers to publicly oppose the proposed US ‘Orphan Works’ legislation, saying it “utterly rejec

Dan Heller is one of the most authoritative US commentators on the photo business. Always erudite and considered, what he has to say is always worth reading. However I can't help that feel he has gone off piste with 'My take on the Orphan Rights Act of 2008'.

To an extent Dan is correct that a lot of FUD is flying around the net, which he labels hysteria, but it's not all hysteria and it's not all baseless. It seems to me he barely touches on what are the real dangers of this Bill.

Much of the debate surrounding Orphan Works hinges on how common orphans are or are not.

Advocates of the legislation maintain that they need a 'right' to use photos that cannot be traced, which evokes a vision of frustrated, hardworking librarians and acadenics struggling and failing to find the copyright holder of works of cultural value. Don't worry, they say, stop the FUD, read the Bill, it will not harm anyone.

On the other hand, what alarms photographers is that digtal images are reproduced endlessly, carelessly and easily, and more often than not all traces of ownership are removed. Nobody has counted the number of orphans out on the web, because nobody can, but we have the sense that the vast majority of images 'out there' are difficult or impossible to trace back to their owners.

So here's a litmus test, and it's one that anyone can repeat. Go to Google images, and try and find out whether it's possible to find out who owns copyright of any arbitrary photos, and whether they are contactable.