Our editorial colleagues who work on sister publications in the design, craft and fine-art fields are also buzzing about this: the Orphan Works Act of 2008, which passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee in April. Orphan Works are works whose rightful copyright owner cannot be identified. According to a recent release from the Craft & Hobby Association, the Orphan Works Act of 2008 does the following: 

• It changes the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act, and makes it virtually impossible for artists to protect their work.
• It allows anyone to use a design without the copyright holder's permission.
• It requires artists to attempt to protect their work by registering it with a digital database system (presumably for a fee, in addition to the copyright filing fee) when no such system currently exists.
• It eliminates statutory damages wherever an infringer can successfully claim an Orphan Works defense, thus eliminating the only tool the law provides to prevent deliberate infringement.
• It allows for an infringer to create and copyright a derivative work from the original design.
• It leaves infringing works (and products incorporating them) subject to seizure in other countries.

CHA and the Graphic Artists Guild have joined forces to hire a lobbyist to advocate against the new law as it makes its way through the legislative process. If you want to know more, or want to take action, visit GAG.org.