Thanks for posting a very well researched contradiction to your original bulletin. I was going to say something, but apathy and general malaise kept me from it. Basically, as the creator of a film culled together entirely from orphaned home movies, and as the artist submitting said film to scores upon scores of film festivals, I can say unwaveringly that your rights as an artist are not in danger due to some "orphaned works" bill. On the contrary, these works are so f*cking protected that no one wants to touch them, least of all the people with all the money to buy, distribute, or even exhibit them. In addition, when I tried to sell and/or give away the reels that I'd bought off of ebay to legitimate museums and collections, none would take them due to the fact that ownership could not be tracked down and okayed for their use. I also could not copyright the work at all, not even my own childhood home movies therein. This wasn't always the case, however... but thanks to the current administration, we now have even tougher, vaguer, all-encompassing copyright laws on the books. There is a "Fair Use Act" that artists try to cite, but it's not ratified by any means... simply a claim that one can put up that sounds better than marching around shouting, "it's art!"