From the Illustrators' Partnership: Please Email Congress UPDATED

PLEASE EMAIL YOUR CONGRESSMAN TODAY.

Dear Cartoonists and Industry Members,

The Senate Version of the Orphan Works Bill passed via a controversial method called hotlining yesterday afternoon. It is now rumored that the US House might drop their version of the bill and pass the Senate bill while everyone is focused on the Wall Street Crisis (probably by attaching it to another bill that is urgently needed to pass).

RIGHT NOW – RIGHT NOW – did I mention Right Now! Please click on the link below and send an email to your congressman and, call them in DC (they are working this weekend) and fax. Try to get to the right legislative aide on the issue. Don’t wait. Please do it now.
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321

PLEASE EMAIL YOUR CONGRESSMAN TODAY.

Orphan Works Opposition: Plan B

SEPT 27 Yesterday, in a cynical move, the sponsors of the Senate Orphan Works Act passed their controversial bill by a controversial practice known as hotlining.

With lawmakers scrambling to raise 700 billion dollars to bail out businesses that are "too big to fail," the Senate passed a bill that would force small copyright holders to subsidize big internet interests such as Google, which has already said it plans to use millions of the images this bill will orphan.With the meltdown on Wall Street, this is no time for Congress to concentrate our nation's copyright wealth in the hands of a few privately owned corporate databases. The contents of these databases would be more valuable than secure banking information. Yet this bill would compel creators to risk their own intellectual property to supply content to these corporate business models. That means it would be our assets at risk in the event of their failure or mismanagement.

As David Rhodes, President of the School of Visual Arts has said, the Orphan Works bill would socialize the expense of copyright protection while privatizing the profit of creative endeavors. Copyright owners neither want nor need this legislation. It will do great harm to small businesses. We already have a banking crisis. Congress should not lay the groundwork for a copyright crisis.Per--Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Illustrators' Partnership
NOW FOR PLAN B We MUST try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill (HR5889) and adopting the Senate version.

PLEASE EMAIL YOUR CONGRESSMAN TODAY.

If you've done it before, do it again!

It takes only a minute to use our new special letter.

Click on the link below, enter your zip code, and take the next steps.Thanks to all of you who heeded the call to action yesterday. http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321

Here’s info on what hotlining by unanimous consent vote is:http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=HoldItems.Home