By: Dave Astor The presidents of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) and National Cartoonists Society (NCS) today wrote an open letter to Congress criticizing "Orphan Works" legislation being considered by the House and Senate.
AAEC President Nick Anderson and NCS President Jeff Keane said their organizations "are profoundly concerned" with the possible legislation because it "imposes new and onerous burdens on the current holders of copyrights to protect their work, while severely curtailing their ability to collect damages.
"It devalues their work in the marketplace and will open up a Pandora's box of potential infringement scenarios, all while placing the burden for policing the marketplace on artists and authors."
Anderson and Keane added: "We support the narrow goal of making truly orphaned works -- that is, ones by deceased authors -- available for use by museums and archivists. But proposed legislation is written so broadly that it will almost certainly unleash a torrent of mischief by unscrupulous infringers, with little to fear in the way of legal consequences."
Their statement concluded: "Both the AAEC and NCS hope your committee will reconsider this dramatic erosion of current copyright protections."
The 1946-founded NCS and 1957-founded AAEC each have hundreds of members, including many of the best-known comic creators and editorial cartoonists in syndication.
Anderson, the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial cartooning, is a Houston Chronicle staffer syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group.
Keane does "The Family Circus" with his father Bil Keane, who created the King Features Syndicate comic panel.
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