via Peter Brantley: Leading UK cultural organizations press for passage of a bill that would ultimately enlarge their ability to serve their missions by enhancing access to valuable historical materials to the public -
via Gary Price, ResourceShelf - http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/03/dealing-with-orphan-works-in-the-uk-several-libraries-and-museums-directors-work-for-passage-of-clause-42-of-digital-economy-bill/ "Perhaps 40% of some of our national institutions' collections are orphan works. [our emphasis] Restricting the digitisation of these works limits access and will leave a huge volume of historically important collections 'in limbo'. A significant proportion of these were never originally intended for commercial use and should not be treated in the same way as commercially produced in-copyright orphan works. "In the view of these signatories, copyright collecting societies do have a major role to play in managing the copyright of known and commercially published rights holders. However, they are not the only institutions capable of acting responsibly in relation to Orphan Works. "The educational and cultural sectors also have a long history of respecting rights holders in the provision of access, combined with an unrivalled knowledge of the unique material that sits within their collections. The suggestion of an Orphan Works licence for such institutions, put forward under the Digital Economy Bill, would offer a flexible system enabling access to collections to be improved for the benefit of education and research around the world." ______________________________________________
