This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Have you ever wanted to use an heirloom photo in one of your scrapbooking layouts, but didn't for fear of violating copyright laws?
Me neither.
But you may want to pay attention anyway.
A bill making its way through Congress would make it easier to use so-called orphan works - books, music, records, films, photos, scrapbook designs and other copyrighted works for which the owner cannot be identified or found. The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 has been passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is about to go before the full Senate. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, is named for an attorney and St. George native who, as chief intellectual-property counsel to the committee, worked closely with Hatch before dying of lung cancer in October 2005.
The legal and financial consequences of using these so-called "orphan works" are apparently a big hindrance for authors, filmmakers, museums, libraries, historical societies and genealogists - not to mention Google, which is investing gobs of money to digitize the world's books and put them in a massive, searchable card catalog, and Microsoft, which owns Corbis, one of the largest stock-image suppliers.
Under current law, violators face stiff penalties (up to $150,000) for each copyright-use violation. The new bill would reduce recoverable damages to "reasonable compensation" so long as the user makes a diligent effort to locate the original rights holder.
This represents a huge shift in copyright protection, which is currently automatic. Authors need only register their works before filing a lawsuit, and that protection extends for almost a century, whether or not the author wants or needs it or even knows about it.
With no effective and efficient way to track down copyright holders, a massive amount of history and culture is bogged down in unnecessary regulation and in danger of being forgotten. This is antithetical to the whole concept of memory preservation and scrapbooking.
And yet those who oppose the changes - professional photographers, graphic designers, illustrators and others who make a living from licensing artwork - are calling on the craft community to rise up in solidarity and write their congressional representatives.
They say the changes will create a free pass to profit from infringements and make it difficult if not impossible for some artists to stay in design-driven businesses like scrapbooking. And they have a point.
Patterned paper, stamps, diecuts, rub-ons, embossing templates. These are all products that rely on the creativity of artists who license their work to manufacturers, which invest heavily in bringing the items to market. Those companies would probably pay a lot less for designs under a system that encourages - or at least lowers the barrier to - copycatting.
"Artists would find jobs elsewhere to support themselves; manufacturers would go out of business or leave the scrapbook industry," says Atlanta-based illustrator Brenda Pinnick. "Who also loses? The scrapbooker."
If scrappers want to continue to enjoy using exciting new designs, they should be rallying together to protect the artists who supply them, she adds.
Still, given that the whole genre of scrapbooking is based on the concept of borrowing others' designs to create your own - we call it scraplifting - I just don't see the motivation for me or any other Suzy Scrapbooker to get involved.
Borrowing works both ways, Pinnick responded in an e-mail. "How will [a scrapbooker] feel when she posts little Johnny's adorable face, or even his art for that matter on her blog, and some company comes along and decides it would be great on their coffee mugs, canisters or even in an ad for VD or child abuse?"
Well, if she's like a lot of us - women who have no compunction about embarrassing and exploiting our children for the sake of winning contests, getting published and receiving message-board "toots" from fellow scrapbookers - she's probably not that concerned about her kid's mug ending up on someone else's.
On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of dozens of women toting scissors and double-sided tape surrounding Hatch, a songwriter, as he attempts to reconcile support of this legislation with past rants about destroying the computers of people who download or swap copyrighted music on the Internet.
Now that's an image worth safeguarding.
Workshop/Live Well by Amber Packer of Sandy
This layout (above) was designed exclusively for A Page 4 All Seasons and is available for purchase through http://www.apage4allseasons.com. It features paper from We R Memory Keepers, flowers and brads by Bazzill, chipboard letters from Making Memories, and Fancy Pants stamps, and is part of Packer's monthly auto-ship club. Check out more of Packer's designs at her blog, http://www.bloominmemories.typepad.com.
Products We Like
- Sierra Collection Blue/Green Adhesive Borders by Anna Griffin, $6
- 6x6 2008 Calendar Cards by Jenni Bowlin, $7
- Midnight Kiss Flocked Flourish Accents by Heidi Grace, 39 pieces, $6
- Kushgrip 7.5-inch nonstick serrated scissors by Tonic Studios, $11.95
- Baby Love, Making Memories, $19.99
Try this
Add an antique touch to your pages by dry embossing foil. Stamp an image onto embossing or tin foil. Let the ink dry and lightly trace the image with an embossing tool (it helps to put the foil on a mouse pad). Lightly brush paint into the ridges and let dry 10 minutes. Use a Wet One to wipe off the excess paint.
One for the money
Online scrap sites can be a bargain if you shop clearance sections and buy from places that offer free shipping at a certain spending threshold. Twenty percent discounts are common and the savings add up over time, not to mention the gas money you'll save.