Dirty Deed Done In DC

Jeeez! You'd think that with the entire Goddamned financial system about to implode the US Senate would have better things to do than to hotline S2913, their version of "The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008." These guys are just evil!

I must've written a dozen letters and made as many telephone calls to the Capitol in the past couple of years since this whole Orphan Works stuff got started, not to mention bugging my friends and colleagues to do the same.

All to no effect. The Senate sold us all down the river this afternoon when they passed the bill on a voice vote, and the House of Representatives is poised to do the very same thing any minute now. With 38 days to Election Day we should all be thinking about a 2009 with no incumbents in Congress. Throw the bums out! All of them!!

As I wrote last spring: copyright law is just fine the way it is. The only ones who really want to change it are those who would like carte blanche to avoid paying for the usage of artworks. Apparently there are more powerful interests with deeper pockets and more influence than there are photographers & illustrators, and the guys with the deeper pockets want nothing less than a free pass to steal our work.

It's time to quit shooting and do something else, photography is looking less and less profitable every day!!
--
Above: Nikon F3HP, 600mm/f4.0 ED Nikkor lens, Fujichrome Velvia 50 film