Orphan Works comment 0229

schumaker-ward-20050308160004To: Jule L. Sigall Associate Register for Policy & International AffairsDate: 03/08/2005From: ward schumaker Comment: FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP DEMANDING FREE CULTURE Two weeks ago we notified you that the U.S. Copyright Office is conducting a study of "orphaned works" to determine if copyright protection should be removed from creative work because others wishing to exploit it find the authors "difficult" to locate. In Kahle v. Ashcroft, two commercial archives have asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to declare unconstitutional statutes that guarantee the term of copyright protection. The plaintiffs argue that four copyrightlaws, including the 1976 Copyright Act, are collectively keeping people from gainingaccess to these orphaned works. The case was dismissed on November 19, 2004, but attorney Lawrence Lessig says the decision will be appealed. He says they had alwaysplanned to fight the decisive battle in the appellate courts. Lawrence Lessig is the Founder of Creative Commons and a leading spokesman for the "Free Culture" movement. The stated mission of Creative Commons is to roll back copyright law to allow "open access to the information commons." It's allied to another group called PK (for Public Knowledge), which appears to be the financial support behind Kahle v Ashcroft. PK receives funding from the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller ...