The so call "orphaned works" legislation, which was defeated in 2006, has been re-introduced. This is a complicated body of legislation and it's not all bad... but there are some serious consequences for artists:

1. Under the proposed laws, if the copyright holder for a work of art can't be identified or found, the work is considered "orphaned" and can be freely used.
2. Further, if the copyright owner later comes forward, the damages they can collect for infringement are extremely limited.
3. In order to protect their works, artists will need to register them with private, pay-to-register services.

It's URGENT that you write your congressman and senators and ask them to oppose the House Resolution 5889 and Senate Bill 2913.

Key points to include in your letter:

• Your livelihood as an artist will be directly affected.
• There is no need for the legislation. There is a simple solution to the 'orphaned works' question under current law: if you can't identify the copyright holder, don't use the work!
  

For more information:

http://phyllisdobbs.info/2008/04/29/orphan-works-act-being-rushed-through-congress-to-the-detri ment-of-illustrators-artists-photographers-designers-authors-and-all-creati ve-perple/

http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/orphan-works

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/04/orphan01.html

I was just contacted by an artist who is listed on the ArtChain.com
site. The artist had been contacted by someone in Scotland who wanted
to buy her work, and before replying, she contacted me to see if it
looked like a scam.

I did a quick Google on the e-mail address, and found it listed on this page, which lists a number of scammers:





http://www.artistsites.org/art-scam-alerts.php

I also turned up another very useful site:

http://www.artscams.com

As a general warning, be suspicious
of:

• unsolicited contacts from other countries
• anyone
  using a free e-mail address (yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc)
• e-mail with lots of spelling and grammatical errors.

Do some web
searching... many scams and scammers have been "outed" on the Internet.