BJP editor Simon Bainbridge writes this week:

Leica's souped-up 37.5 million pixel digital SLR, the second coming of the EOS 5D, a grown-up, 18th anniversary edition of Photoshop, the arrival of an ultra-compact, mirrorless DSLR system, Hasselblad's massive 40% price reductions, Sony's bid to compete with Canon and Nikon at the high end... There was even a new medium format film camera on show for Christsakes. With bellows. This year's Photokina delivered more of note than any trade show I've attended in the past dozen years. Finally, we have the promise that photo manufacturers are taking the pro photographer market seriously again, plus evidence of real competition with the emergence of true market differentation, from diminutive Micro Four Thirds cameras up to the whopping resolutions of the latest digital medium format systems.

But that shouldn't distract from one story that might just overshadow all these exciting new innovations - the news that the US Senate has approved an amended version of the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act, which would allow publishers to reproduce an unknown author's work without permission. Despite some last minute amendments, the legislation still represents the biggest threat to copyright protection in two decades. Under current law, a copyright holder has the undeniable right to profit from their work, in the knowledge that unauthorised usage is punishable (in theory at least) by severe fines.

If orphan works legislation now passes through the House of Representatives, responsibility passes to the author, who must actively protect their work by process of registration. This system would prove unworkable for most authors due the time and cost involved in registering multiple works, and because it is open to widespread abuse. Amendments requiring further due diligence in search of the author of an orphaned work remain woolly, effectively creating a thieves' charter for anyone unscrupulous enough to strip an image of copyright information, knowing that if caught they would merely have to pay what they would have been charged in the first place.

Given the current amount of copyright abuse, we can assume things would get considerably worse. If there's one thing we've learnt from the current economic meltdown, it's that the market will test legislative boundaries to the limit, profiting from any grey areas resulting from unclearly defined regulation.

Click here to read BJP's coverage of the Senate Orphan Works Bill.

Also this week, BJP has a report about Robert Capa's famous Falling Soldier photograph. Was the picture faked? The International Center of Photography now has the answer!