I thought you might be interested in knowing there is now an online petition available concerning Senate Bill 2913 and House of Representatives Bill 5889 (The Orphan Works Act of 2008).

We just had a discussion at our May meetup on how difficult (and expensive) it is to enforce today's copyright laws. Although I do have mixed feelings about current copyright laws and believe they are in great need of reform, the Orphan Works Act is clearly not the direction to go. A few weeks ago I read an interesting NY Times article from Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessig on the subject. As he states in the article "The solution before Congress, however, is both unfair and unwise. The bill would excuse copyright infringers from significant damages if they can prove that they made a "diligent effort" to find the copyright owner. A "diligent effort" is defined as one that is "reasonable and appropriate," as determined by a set of "best practices" maintained by the government."


You can find the online petition here

Or

Find a letter here to write your Congress representatives