Everyone can sign – please do!! And for those in Nashville .. who knows – there many be dozens of readers there – <g> …  there is a big meeting there today about this bill!! Today a couple of people are coming over to have a cookout for my birthday … HAPPY SOLSTICE!!  I got paid for the work I did in January!! And another of my former shops closed.

Pink Portico, Digital © Diane Clancy

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

A Million People Against the Orphan Works Bill

http://www.petitiononline.com/Stop2913/petition.html

We support this petition. We urge you to sign it. Please forward the link and urge others to sign.

You can help increase the power of the petition by signing your real name and listing your artistic specialties.

If you are not a US citizen, we suggest that you note your country, and state if it is a member of the Berne Convention.

This petition is sponsored by A Million People Against the Orphan Works Bill, a new grassroots group founded by multimedia journalist Steve Lehman on Facebook and Flickr. All people are welcome to participate; it is not exclusive to these websites.

In 1987, Lehman broke the story of Tibetan unrest, later profiled in his award winning book “The Tibetans Struggle to Survive.” As a visual artist intimately acquainted with the power of free speech, the protection afforded by the right to privacy, and the critical need for independent voices, Lehman, like the rest of us, is deeply troubled by any national policy that affects artists’ control over their works. 

Please forward this message to every artist you know. 

For additional information about Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists at:  http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185

Nashville Town Hall Meeting to Discuss controversial ‘Orphan Works’ legislation.”

Saturday June 21 2:00 PM 

At Sunset Grill

2001 Belcourt Ave

Nashville, TN 37212

(615) 386-3663

Admission Free/Open to Public

Congressman Jim Cooper and Congressman John Hall will hold a “Town Hall Meeting” with Nashville’s entertainment community this Saturday to discuss music-industry issues such as the controversial “Orphan Works” bill. The event is free and open to the public.

We hope all artists, cartoonists, photographers, art educators and others in the Nashville area will attend to express their opposition to this radical change to copyright law. It’s important to let lawmakers know that this bill will affect all forms of art, damage small businesses and open the door to cultural theft on an unprecedented scale. Please contact others in the Nashville area. Urge them to attend and urge them all to speak out.

Congressman Cooper represents the district that contains most of Nashville’s music business. He is a 2006 graduate of the Leadership Music program. 

Congressman Hall is the only professional musician in Congress. Formerly a Nashville resident, he is a first-term congressman representing District 19 in upstate New York. Hall founded Orleans and Co-wrote its classics “Still the One” and “Dance with Me.” His songwriting hits in Music City included “Juliet” (The Oak Ridge Boys), “You Can Dream of Me” (Steve Wariner), “Reach” (New Grass Revival), and “New Star Shining” (Ricky Skaggs). His songs have also been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Chet Atkins, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Janis Joplin, among others.

 ~ Diane Clancy