Orphaned works: Copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even
possible to locate
Colleagues:
Those of you in Rights and Repro need to know about this. Think about
all the works you have not published because you couldn't clear the
rights!
This issue is being considered by the US Copyright Office. In short,
they actually want to know "whether there are compelling concerns
raised by orphan works that merit a legislative, regulatory or other
solution, and what type of solution could effectively address these
concerns without conflicting with the legitimate interests of authors
and right holders". See info at the federal register:
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr3739.html
Comments had to have been received by the Copyright Office by March 25,
2005. And they were.
BUT, interested parties (and we are interested parties!) can still
submit replies in support of (or not) to the written comments on or
before 5 p.m. on May 9, 2005
Already submitted comments & supporting letters (go to RARIN website
http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/1law.html) :
Comment submitted jointly by the Guggenheim, the Getty and the Met
(GGM) on March 25 (long pdf file, but important, very readable and
thorough) ***
Supporting letter submitted by LACMA on March 25 (1 page, an
excellent format for supporting the GMM comment)
Please consider tailoring the LACMA's letter of support to your own
institutional situation and sending it in by May 9.
Many thanks to Maria Pallante-Hyun for making this material available
in a timely fashion. They are public documents and filed with the
Copyright Office, but easier to obtain at the links above.
*** What follows is a summary written by the authors of the GGM
comment - but I strongly encourage you to read the full document.
"In summary, we propose a five-year statutory safe harbor for the use
of orphan works, following a period of reasonable due diligence. We
believe an exemption of this sort is significantly more helpful to
nonprofits than is a solution of reduced damages, in part because we
already enjoy some reduction of damages under the Copyright Act. We
also note that reduced damages may not be enough comfort for many
nonprofits, many of whom have limited resources. From our
perspective, the goal is to create a measure that truly allows
institutions to make more, culturally-important material available to
the public. We outline these practical considerations in further detail
in our response.
"We propose that the safe harbor apply to published and unpublished
works. In order to reduce the potential harm to copyright owners, we
propose that all use must be nonexclusive and that users have some
obligation to keep due diligence records. We further suggest that
orphan works be identified by users either through a notice or
statement, and/or a listing on a Copyright Orphanage website. These
acts would create a presumption of good faith. They would also serve
public policy by creating a mechanism through which lost owners may
connect to interested users. We do not believe that this proposal
violates either TRIPS or Berne, for the reasons we state in the paper."
--------------------------------------
Suzanne Quigley
Co-Chair RARIN
RC-AAM Rights And Reproductions Information Network Taskforce
RARIN http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/01rcsite.html
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