Here’s a way you can take a few minutes today to make copyright work better for artists, musicians, and academics:

OrphanWorks.org

The Copyright Office is thinking of changing the rules to make it easier to reuse copyrighted works (photos, music, film footage, text, whatever) when the copyright holder is impossible to find. We’re not talking about sweeping reform here, but it could make copyright suck less for a lot of people.

The situation right now is so sad: even when people totally want to play by the rules and ask / pay to use a piece of copyrighted stuff in their own work, they often can’t even do that because copyright holders are hard to find. In other words, copyright is a failure even when you have the money to play by the rules.

Anyway, the Copyright Office looking for public comment, so let’s try to get them some public comment. We’ve heard the most helpful comments will be horror stories of trying to track down a copyright holder and it being impossible. To file a comment, and for more info, check out: OrphanWorks.org

Seventeen-year old Corey F. of Chassell, MI wrote a superb letter to the BSA and MPAA as a response to the one-sided and strictly pro-them filesharing curriculum the BSA and MPAA snuck into schools. These groups got teachers to teach the curriculum by distributing it through the Weekly Reader Magazine or by getting visiting teachers from Junior Achievement to pass it on. The rad-i-cal ALA has also recently released their own filesharing curriulum in response to the lobbying groups’ insidious version – theirs is being circulated by librarians of public schools (so awesome). If anyone has a hold of the curriculum , let us know. The other good news is this up and coming, fiesty youngster is now off listening to his blue mini iPod with the glory of a large music library. Congratulations Corey! All the letters we received are travelling by mail to the MPAA and BSA as the wheel on the iPod mini turns and turns.

A couple months ago, Francis Hwang turned a U2 ‘special edition’ iPod into the U2 vs. Negtivland iPod, which commemorates a seminal sampling battle that ensued when Negitvland sampled U2 and outakes of Kasey Kasem to make a single that they called “U2”. Francis posted his brilliantly modified iPod to ebay and announced it as a fundraiser for Downhill Battle. Some typical corporate bullshit ensued and the iPod was yanked from eBay before the auction finished. Now it’s back up for auction on Francis’ website– so take that, auction-house monopoly! Bidding ends next week.