Suggest you spend some time with google getting acquainted with
orphan works pro and con.
http://orphanworks.blogspot.com/
Also, suggest you study internet standards for metadata. Currently
it's only possible to get metadata to adhere to works on the internet
when put there by the creators. The major image editing application
strips it out when creating its galleries, all the lower end
ecommerce sites strip it out, most of the popular image sharing sites
strip it out, although I believe Flickr leaves it in. Some of the
American newspapers I've taken images from leave it in and some strip
it out.
And look into the Stock Artists Alliance
http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/
The US copyright office has a proposal for orphan works legislation
which does not include funding for a searchable visual database, and
may still include terms which emasculate US copyright infringment law.
Outside the US you also need to consider what sort of historic
tradition you nation has of the purpose of copyright. Unfortunately,
here in the US, we have a term in our Constitution which specifies
that copyright must eventually devolve into public domain, thus
robbing heirs of the right to control usage of creations of their
elders.
The most positive thing that could happen for copyright, in my
opinion, is for the laws governing collusion on setting prices to be
adjusted so that independent creators could form negotiating
organizations. At present in the US (at its most extreme) if any two
creators can be proven to have discussed their fee for similar
services or usage they can be sued for price fixing. This
discourages newcomers from charging competitive rates and discourages
experienced artists from comparing contractual offerings from
prospective clients.
You will need also to look carefully into the contracts offered by
the major news and stock organizations as well as the monopoly
relationships between organizations like Getty, the American national
sports organizations and the major press agencies.
Finally you need to be fully informed about the Creative Commons
movement and think carefully about the impact that giving away usage
of creative effort has on those who actually need to make a living.
Talent comes to many, and not all of those choose to make a living at
some of their skills. A truely level marketplace, where the talented
who were offered the opportunites and knew how to make the best of
them could make a decent living whether they also were otherwise
employed or not, should not be stressed by those otherwise employed
giving away their work.
--
Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
http://www.landsedgephoto.com
http://e-and-s.instaproofs.com/
