Here’s a quick shot I got of Ed yesterday at B&H pontificating on a particular lawyer point to what was a great audience. We stayed an extra half hour after the taping to answer questions. Sold all available copies of our book at the store. The video should be up in about two weeks and we will have a link to that video posted when we get it. 
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#1 by Bearman on July 19, 2015 - 5:45 pm
Anxiously waiting to see Ed’s opinion of the new copyright change that is being tossed around esp around Orphaned works and if he thinks the changes will be good or bad for artists
#2 by Vivian on July 20, 2015 - 3:12 pm
I too came here hoping to find Ed’s opinion about the orphaned works – not sure if this is something that will upend copyright law as we know it or whether it’s just alarmist talk.
#3 by Jack and Ed on July 21, 2015 - 9:41 am
This is more a question for me than for Ed as I dealt with this years ago when I was on the PPA board of directors and was the President. It’s a long answer that is best served as a full blog piece, that I’m working on now. The answer involves explaining what orphan works is about first. A quick explanation here – yes, it is alarmist. No, the sky will not fall.
#4 by Vivian on July 22, 2015 - 11:29 am
Thank you, Jack! Looking forward to that blog post. In the meantime, I’m drafting a letter of opposition to the copyright office. I don’t like the sound of this. Anything today can become an “orphan work” since so many sites remove metadata from our files. This proposal, if it becomes law, seems to enable infringement under the guise of benefitting the “public good.”
#5 by Jack and Ed on July 22, 2015 - 2:59 pm
Vivian, The idea that an Orphan Works law will make infringement extremely easy is one of the fallacies and fear-mongering that is going on. Just because a file doesn’t have meta data does not make it an orphaned work. All the bills proposed (and nothing is near finalization, it’s all proposals at this time) have incorporated a “due diligence” search. Infringers will not be able to hide behind false or minimal searches. A lawyer like Ed, or any semi-competent attorney, will take minutes to destroy an infringer in court. You have to prove what you did do a real search. If you can find yourself with a simple Google Image search, claiming you did look and not find will not hold up. At that point, as the copyright owner, you are exactly where you are today, with the current laws and protections at your disposal. AS LONG AS YOU CONTINUE TO REGISTER YOUR WORK AT THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE. You do not lose your rights with an orphan work bill. One of the reasons I personally believe some are trying to stir things up, is to compel photographers to join registries, where there will be money to be made. We are tied up with stuff right now and still working on an article on orphan works. We’re also recording a TWiP podcast tomorrow and will discuss it there. We’ll post when the TWiP podcast goes up. As the Brits say, Stay Calm and Keep Photographing.
Jack
#6 by Jack and Ed on July 24, 2015 - 10:18 pm
Bearman and Vivian – Our blog piece on Orphan Works is up as “The Sky is Not Falling”.
#7 by Vivian on July 24, 2015 - 10:46 pm
Thanks!