The Senate has now passed its version of the Orphan Works bill, S.2913, on a voice vote of unanimous consent.

This means that that the game in the Senate is over, for now. You should focus all your efforts on communicating with your Representative.

The members of the House of Representatives are being bombarded with messages from people in the library community urging them to adopt the language of the Senate orphan works bill. We need to counter that, and we need to do it now — tomorrow may, literally, be too late.

Please e-mail or call your Representative today and ask him or her to oppose the adoption of S. 2913 or its language in the House. We urge you to contact your Representative as soon as possible. You can find the name and contact information for your Representative at www.visi.com/juan/congress. The list contains telephone numbers and links to send “electronic communications” to your Representative. And here is a letter that you can copy, paste, edit and send to your Representative, below. Please feel free to change the wording as you wish.

If you prefer to telephone, your message is simple: Please oppose any efforts to adopt S. 2913 or its language.

It will take you only a few minutes to call or send your e-mail, and it is crucial that you do this as soon as possible.

More photos up tomorrow,

Cheers,
Ben