Preemptive strike!

[bladespark]

If you see somebody posting about this article and starting into the paranoid, tinfoil hat routine about how the government is going to legalize art theft, THIS IS NOT TRUE.

There was an Orphan Works bill.

Said Orphan Works bill did NOT legalize art theft.

Said Orphan Works bill was NOT pushed by freaking Bill Gates (good grief!)

Said Orphan Works bill DIED and was not passed.

It's over.

It's done.

We don't need to bother our congressman, or sign a petition, or whatever other action the people running around like Chicken Little and screaming about the sky falling on artists everywhere are advocating.

THERE IS NO ORPHAN WORKS BILL RIGHT NOW. There was, it's dead, and can we PLEASE SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY?

This frothing paranoia is infesting every community I'm on, and I want it to GO AWAY NOW.

Edit - Now with improved actual facts!

The text of the bill itself:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/t2GPO/http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:h5439ih.txt.pdf
(You'll need to click the "continue to GPO site" link to get it.)

A report about the situation that inspired the bill from the US Copyright office:
http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/orphan-report.pdf

I have seen one article mentioning the return of this bill, here:
http://oncopyright.copyright.com/2008/03/17/orphan-works-are-back-on-congress%E2%80%99s-radar-screen/

However, the bill is NOT listed for the current session of congress.

http://thomas.loc.gov/ is where you can look up current legislation.