Sign the PETITION
We, the undersigned members of an international network of photographers, journalists, filmmakers, documentary makers, visual artists, and writers, are collected together here to make known our profound concern regarding the content and consequences of the proposed Orphan Works bill.
We believe that a free society flourishes in relation to its intellectual freedoms. In order for a free society to benefit from the creative efforts of its members, and to guarantee the fertility and integrity of such works, these efforts must be protected as rigorously as our fundamental rights of free speech, free assembly, and a free press. At the heart of the Amendments to the Constitution rests the incontrovertible belief that the tyranny of unchecked powers and interests is a threat to just governance and the social good. As such they must be subject to the rule of law and prevented from transgressing the rights of private individuals or groups of people who do not exercise great authority politically or economically.
In order to form a more perfect Union, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and to our Posterity, we must ensure that the vitality and integrity of the Imagination not be infringed, and that the life of the mind be given adequate scope and protection for it to continue driving the technological and humanitarian progress of all societies.
The American Constitution states that one of the duties of Congress is “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;” (article 1, section 8, clause 8). This providential clause has ensured the progressive development of what was once a small and defenseless nation, pitted against the seemingly unlimited power and resources of the European industrializing nations, and virtually guaranteed that the new ideas and innovative vision of its pioneering peoples would be nurtured, propagated, and guarded for the common good of the nation. There is a clear and vital relationship between our ideas and our social growth: the health of the body politic depends upon preserving it.
