Google gets your lost children
Web dogma says technology has made copyright law obsolete. Content producers are supposed to make a living by selling advertising, finding a rich donor or collecting tips.
The business model only really works for the largest content agreggators. Selling advertising in other people’s content is what’s making Google a rich, fat, powerful monopoly.
New legislation, about to be passed by Congress in the shadow of the bailout mess, will further strenghten Google’s hand against independent photographers, artists, designers.
The Orphan Works Act of 2008 weakens copyright protection for works whose owners cannot be located. Basically, if you see something and the owner isn’t around, it’s yours!
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists says the new law ‘threatens the livelihoods of everyone who relies on copyright for a living’.
Dale Gladstone of the The New York Digital Art Meetup Group sent out a mailing urging members to ‘tell the House to vote NO’.
