There are a couple of legislative Bills (H.R. 5889 & S. 2913) passing through the various House's of the US Government concerning an aspect of US copyright (see below) called 'Orphan Works' - Orphan Works are essentially any creative work (image, painting, sculpture, digital work etc.. etc.. in short any form of creative expression) that's put down in "tangible form" for which the owner and/or originating author cannot be found or determined, hence it being 'orphaned' (without [sic] 'parents').

All creative works are protected under local and international copyright laws, the most important of which internationally is something referred to as the Berne Convention. In a nutshell this 'treaty' protects creative (authored) works from being exploited without the originating authors permission, by placing them upon creation under the all encompassing protection of 'copyright' (©) - it's worth pointing out here that the Berne Convention apparently doesn't acknowledge the existence of anything that could be regarded as 'Orphan Works'. It also sets in place a mechanism for the levy of heavy financial penalties if works are exploited, and it's this latter aspect that a large part of the current legislation concerns; the limitation of damages liable by copyright infringements.

"...Potential users of orphan works often fail to display or use such works out of concern that they may be found liable for statutory damages, amounting to as much as $150,000." [1]

This whole debacle is based on setting up legislation that effectively removes or severely diminishes liabilities for people and/or entities if they infringe copyright, to the point that it all but (in)directly requires authors to register their works with the US Copyright & Patents Office in order to (re)gain fair and just compensation as laid out in various, previous, treaties on copyright - that is exactly what they protect against; direct or indirect forced or coerced registration of copyright. In other words with this new legislation, it becomes (theoretically) cheaper for entities to infringe (claiming 'due diligence') and pay a minimal fine against Orphan Works with the fault being placed in the hands of authors for not registering their works.

It's not presented that way, obviously, it's purpose is hidden under the guise of being able to;

"... preserve important parts of our personal and national heritage, without giving a free license to infringe on established copyright protections." [2]

That quote is a red herring as it implies a 'historical' (non-profit) use, which is not the case; there are special clauses in copyright legislation that account for 'educational' and 'historical' (non-profit) uses which allow use without infringement. The problem authors are having with this is that last part of the sentence; whilst it may very well have the language in place to imply that it prevents a 'free for all', the exact criteria of how this is done, how it's prevented are not laid bare for all and sundry to see and clearly understand, they are quite simply left far to open to interpretation and thusly 'abuse'.

Read up on the following. This is real legislation that is passing through the US political system that could have far reaching effects on International artists and how they trade/deal with issues of copyright from outside the USA.

• H.R.5889 - Orphan Works Act of 2008 (Introduced in House) [alt]
• S.2913 - Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (Introduced in Senate) [alt]
• Summery - Leahy, Hatch, Berman, Smith Introduce IP Legislation
• CGSociety topic of discussion (additional information)
• Written Statement of Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner on Behalf of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America - the IPoA are at the centre of this issue as it was an article associated with that that sensationally brought this issue to the fore.

If you want to take action then take a look at the following, a series of sample letters that can be edited and 'personalised' before sending off to your Government representative. It's also suggested that International creative contact their local Gov. representatives and voice their concern from an international perspective.

• Sample letters of protest
• International sample letter of protest

Also took some time to freeze my fingers taking some shots in the thick (for the UK) frosts we've had in recent weeks; I need to remind myself to wear proper gloves when photo shooting in the cold because fingerless gloves aren't much use after about 10 minutes, beyond that you might as well have used full gloves because frostbite means not being able to feel the shutter button anyway!. I do quite like the quality of light at this time of year, it's very crisp with a nice colour tone to it that the Fuji picks up well.

Heavy Frost 4

Heavy Frost 3

Heavy frost 2

Heavy frost 1

Overhead Hotair Ballon

Zoomed Hotair Ballon flying (?) overhead

I don't know why but for some reason our (very) old 'friend' (obviously that word is used very loosely) Bell Cruise has seen fit to have an overdue spasm of activity; in the last couple of days I've had a good number of artists from all over the world emailing me with concerns regarding this acquaintance we've come to know and loath; if you get one yourself, forward it on and forget about it, it's 'spam' and 'scamming' of the lowest order and not worth you time and/or energy to worry about.

This was just a semi urgent message to all the sites new and old visitors that Messrs Bell Cruise in under the influence of sunspots, expect bouts of high activity and interruptions to electronic services as a result.

Keep sending in the mail by the way. Oh speaking of which... if you are sending a message through and want a reply please, please PLEASE, make sure you use a proper valid email address that can be accessed from the 'outside'; I've had a few messages bounced back recently because they use very weird (and thus invalid) addresses based on multi subdomains; info@mail.mail.mail.com. just won't work, info@mail.com will (usually), so keep that in mind. ;o)

I don't know if you've ever looked closely at frost but it's quite fascinating; the crystalline structure is composed of layers that grow on top of each other ending up in these semi-cuboid structures which give it that 'crispy' appearance; I imagine a spherical structure would make it appear 'softer'. I'll keep an eye out for more frosty mornings.

December Frost