Looking for advice again...

[tikatu]

Grrr. A certain Welsh TBs writer is trying to pick my brains again for his terribly AU "reimagining". I'm finding it very irritating.

But, on to the main topic of discussion.

There's been some talk about the Orphan Works legislation on the FanLib forums. 

Quite a few people are up in arms about it, and see it as a way for big corporations to make money by creating registries where artists (or anyone creative, really) have to register their works - for a fee. If they don't, then the artistic person can possibly lose the copyright on their works - they would by default be considered "orphan" because they weren't registered. This would allow anyone and his/her housecat to use them without recompense or recourse... or that's what some of those against this seem to be warning about.

With all this swirling around my admittedly non-porous brain (as in, I no longer soak up information like a sponge), I made a weird connection that makes me wonder: should I change my penname at Fiction Press to what I'd like to use should I become a professional writer?

I've used "Tikatu" just about everywhere I archive my fic, whether it's fanfiction or original fiction. But I'm beginning to feel like using what I'd like my professional name to be would perhaps forestall this whole "can't find the copyright holder" orphan works business.

Maybe I'm overthinking the situation - or feeling itchy about my original work. I did do a search at Fiction Press to see if I can use it. No one else has a penname exactly like it. 

Friends and neighbors, what thinkest thou?

ETA: I had done some preliminary scouting around before posting this and found that the last notices on such a bill were in 2006 - hence the sort of ambivalent tone to the post. Since then, I've discovered that there was far more recent discussion in a House subcommittee on another introduction of the legislation. And I've also gleaned - through discussions in other journals as referenced by partly_bouncyat Fan History - that the original article is not only terribly inflammatory (which was my opinion from the start) but highly biased and inaccurate. Check out the Fan History article for a whole slew of facts about the whole shebang.

Still, despite the lack of immediate danger, I'm looking for that advice. So if you have some for me, sock it to me, baby!
 

Comments

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

Having read through various versions of it, I'm not even clear if there is even any pending legislation involved. The impression I get is that people are over reacting to old news. I've been trying to summarize some of the situation here. And yeah. Really, until saner voices prevail, it will be hard to determine what is going on.

[tikatu.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with you. The article from Animation World sounded really inflammatory to me. That's why I've been trying to provide links to more neutral sources (like the actual legislation in the Congressional Record) for the folks at FanLib to read and consider).

Do you mind if I add the FH summary to the thread? I really hate for people to get all up in arms about something that's not even a threat... or not quite the threat than they think it is. (Parallels can be seen in the response from "fandom" on LJ to FanLib's initial appearance.)

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

Link to Fan History where ever you want. ;-) No need to ever ask regarding Fan History. Feel free to summarize away. I posted a link to it over there and linked to FanLib in the entry because FanLib is the first place I've honestly seen that leap from fan art to fan fiction. (It leaves me scratching my head.)

The really big discussions appear to be going on over on DeviantART. Looking around to see where else it is being discussed. It is interesting to see how things will evolve.

[tikatu.livejournal.com]

I've seen you've already linked. :)

The SFWA also made the leap, if you read the materials that jallan links to: http://www.sfwa.org/contracts/orphan.htm. Again, the date is telling; this letter was written in March, 2005.

[partly-bouncy.livejournal.com]

I'm really bad when it comes to plugging things. If I see an opportunity, I generally do so. (Mostly because I want Fan History to succeed and in order to do that, it needs to be put out there as often as possible.)

Yeah, there was a fair bit of discussion in 2005. How to connect that to fandom is a bit harder as the link between fan and non-fan discussion can be difficult. :/ Fandom discussion didn't really seem to kick start until 2006. (And I'm not surprised I missed it both times. Ah well.)

[tikatu.livejournal.com]

I think, at least in terms of the FanLib discussion, that it's more of an overarching "this is our creative work being menaced", with some members not making a clear distinction between original and fan works. Not to mention that Simons brings it down to the level of "you'll have to register the pictures of your last vacation", which, of course, means anyone who happens to have a blog or website where their personal photos might be found.

I have trouble with the whole "if you don't register, then your work is automatically considered 'orphan'" part, because that's not what I saw in the actual text of H.R.5439. It's in Larry Lessig's proposal that any mention of registation and private registries.