CLAUSE 43 CAN BE STOPPED!
Help our friends in the UK!
Clause 43 of the proposed Digital Economy Bill will wreck havoc on the livelihoods of many creative small businesses – illustrators, photographers, graphic artists, painters, etc. The movement to Stop 43 has gathered great strength, but time is short. Read about the campaign, post it to everyone you know, place their campaign badge on your site or on your signature. If this bill passes with Clause 43, you can bet it will encourage U.S. commercial sharks to take your work away from you.
What’s Yours in Now Ours
Until now, if someone found one of your photographs and wanted to use it commercially, they couldn’t without first asking you. Clause 43 changes all that by allowing the use of “Orphan Works” – photographs, illustrations and other artworks whose owners cannot be found.
Clause 43 says that if someone finds your photograph, wants to use it and decides that they can’t trace you, they can do whatever they like with it after paying an arbitrary fee to a UK Government-appointed “licensing body”. You’ll never know unless you happen to find it being used in this way, in which case you might be able to claim some money.
