Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art:
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605
To quote the article on how and why Artists in both America and Europe might be screwed:
An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.
Also from the article:
If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we’ve created over the past 34 years, unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won’t successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free.
This Bill is no joke. It is serious. Any artist in America of Europe has to care. Please for our rights as artist’s write your State Reps in the Senate and the House. Make your voice be heard. Get every artist you know involved. These are our rights to our own works and we have to do something about it now otherwise it may be too late very soon. This is not just for us but for every artist that will come after us too. Don’t let big wig fat cats screw us big time!