SAA Testimony . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
March 29, 2006

(Editors note: Following is written testimony presented to the U.S House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property about proposed orphan works legislation by the Stock Artists Alliance.)

March 14, 2006

Dear Chairman Smith:

On behalf of the Board of Directors and members of Stock Artists Alliance, the professional association of stock photographers, I am writing to you with concern about the newly proposed “Orphan Works”
amendment to the Copyright Act as it applies to the business of licensing stock photography.

The stock photography industry is estimated at $1.5 billion a year worldwide. Our clients, photo buyers, stock distributors and photographers all rely on a robust copyright regime to protect the commercial licensing of images.

Our members are all independent businesses and we work with over 150 of the largest stock photo distributors worldwide. Our livelihoods and retirement depend on the confidence we have placed in copyright law to protect our rights to exploit our images in the commercial and editorial marketplace.

We have been working with our fellow organizations, ASMP, PPA and PACA who have represented us in discussions with the Copyright Office over the last few days, and we fully support their efforts.

• The images offered for license by professional stock photographers and our distributors and are all, by definition, currently being exploited by the copyright owners.

• Photographs are often published without attribution; online published images almost never have a credit line; copyright info embedded in digital files is easily removed, inadvertently or on purpose.

• We hold as a principle that any image which is being actively marketed ought not to be used under this statute without payment of the copyright owner’s customary licensing fees.

• We believe the possibilities for abuse of this statute are considerable and that such misuses would have a severe negative impact on our businesses and on those of our photo buyers.

• The Copyright Office specifically warned against “abuse of the orphan works exception by users who may conduct superficial searches merely as a pretext for exploiting a protected work.” They
emphasized “the primary purpose of the orphan works system is….not to provide a way for users to avoid contacting copyright owners”

We urge you to work with our colleagues in the visual arts to ensure that our images in the commercial marketplace continue to be protected with viable and affordable remedies against infringements.

Respectfully submitted,

David Sanger, President
510-526-0800
cc. Honorable Howard L. Berman, Ranking Member.