A "Rose" By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

Though Katie Couric won't be reporting it, there's good news from Washington, DC for a change. In the rush to get re-elected and pass some very important legislation, such as dismantling Habeas Corpus(?), before hitting the campaign trail, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced that he was withdrawing the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006 (HR 6052) from consideration at the current mark-up session, which is likely to be the last one this year. The good news though is tempered by some bad news as well: he said that he plans to introduce another bill when the new Congress convenes next year.

Just the same, a win is a win is a win... and a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But we've only won a battle, not the war. We'll be watching intently to be sure that the bill does not rear its ugly head in a "lame duck" session, and ASMP will begin work on drafting our own version of a new bill, favorable to photographers and artists, for possible introduction in the next Congress.

The efforts of ASMP members and our allies in the creative community in representing and organizing members' opposition to the bill... plus all of your faxes and letters have played a major part in killing the legislation, not to mention some keen lobbying by our ASMP crew. Rep. Smith's scheme of tying the Orphan Works amendment to a digital music licensing bill appears to have put us over the edge in creating the critical mass of opposition needed to stop the bill in this Congress.

Should we be celebrating? Well, like I said, a win is a win is a win, but you can bet that this will come around again next legislative session. En garde!!