Please speak out against the Orphan Works Copyright Act on behalf of all artists!
http://marcianek.tumblr.com/post/124554407811/digital-doodle-i-interrupt-a-long-term-hiatus

If this bill passes with:

• People being able to copyright derivative work; as in, take one of your pictures, edit it slightly, then register and sell that work (via licensing or otherwise).
• Use unregistered aka "orphaned" work commercially if they "can't contact you".

I'm just going to pull 99% of all my work off-line and concentrate on my fine art, which I can present in person. Because this is a steaming pile of bullshit.
This would also affect non-US artists, and I'm not even sure international artists /can/ register their work with the US copyright office.
If they can, you can be sure it'll cost a tidy sum to have your entire ouvre registered and if everyone is doing it, it's going to take forever. Hope your stuff doesn't get ganked while you wait, lel :/

This is just the next step in a trend of making it easier for large companies (such as clothing brands looking for images to put on their shirts) to just take whatever they want from individual artists who don't have the resources to defend themselves against corporate skullduggery as is. The only ones who won't be affected by this new "copyright law" is the large companies, who have the resources to have everything registered and start lawsuits against infringers, "good faith" or otherwise. In fact, I'm willing to bet this bill is being sponsored by at least a few of the companies that stand to gain by this bill passing :/

Some people might be thinking "Well, X artist is fine with people using their art for whatever." but every individual artist can give away their own rights already, without any amendments to current copyright laws. This is basically stripping away a likely already meager paycheck from people who work hard for the benefit of people who already have plenty.

If you are an American art lover, please consider writing in, the deadline is July 23.