so the orphan works bill is still floating around and there has been some recent attention as it’s fate fluttered between life and death. as it stands now, everything’s on hold while congress is on recess. no doubt though that we’ll be starting all over once the next session swings back to work.

last week i had the chance to catch up with MT senator jon tester during his trip through the area to try and discuss the orphan works bill. unfortunately he had little time and awareness about the current intellectual property rights concerns that face creatives. but it was a start, his staff now has a few photographers they can consult as i wasn’t the only one there. (hats off to another local shooter who has taken upon himself to contact and speak or meet with all three of MT’s reps).

with this in mind i wanted to let everyone know that PACA (Picture Archive Council of America) is working within the creative community to further copyright education and to that end has created the Jane Kinne Copyright Education Program and posted a video. this via creativepro.com,

“In support of this effort PACA developed the Jane Kinne Copyright Education Program, which can be streamed online or ordered on DVD. The free one-hour presentation provides a thorough review of copyright law in the United States and how it applies to the use of imagery in advertising, the news media and fine art.” The video touches the finer points of what we all need to be familiar with as covered by counsel Nancy Wolff.

and fresh off the press this am on wired.com comes a short concept on “Who Should be the First US Copyright Czar?”. with the president signing the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act just monday, we could be in for an interesting argument to determine who might fit this bill. in true wired style they’ve already got a poll going so you might want to check it out. so far Lawrence Lessig, Founder of Center for Internet and Society & a Stanford professor is in the lead.

the basic idea behind the copyright czar would be to mirror the drug czar and to implement a nationwide plan to combat piracy and then report directly to congress and the president. with the right person engaged, this could be a huge boost for intellectual property in my mind but it will be fascinating to see who that might be and how the powers that be, google, yahoo, etc, can serve their influence.