Dear Listees,
Below is an update on the orphan works legislation, from Maria
Pallante-Hyun of the Guggenheim. (FYI -- I removed the attachment
referred to below because attachments are not allowed on the list.
If anyone is interested in seeing the letter Maria refers to, let me
know and I will forward it
to you.)
Diane
Subject: FW: Orphan Attachment
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:05:29 -0500
Thread-Topic: Orphan Attachment
Thread-Index: AcZJyxiR8HNLEqRZRb+I9pULdEW3vQAAF7YfAAAYZpY=
From: "Maria Pallante" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
X-ELNK-Info: spv=0;
X-ELNK-AV: 0
X-ELNK-Info: sbv=0; sbrc=.0; sbf=00; sbw=000;
Diane - thanks for your help. FYI for you and your colleagues. Best, Maria
________________________________
From: Maria Pallante
Sent: Fri 3/17/2006 9:00 AM
To: ([email protected])
Subject: Orphan Update
Orphan Works Update
The possibility of copyright legislation to address the problem of
orphan works is still in motion. Following the oversight hearing
held by the House Subcommittee last week, the four groups
represented in the testimony were invited to participate in closed
negotiations to decide the language of the bill which Chairman Lamar
Smith intends to introduce in the next couple of weeks. The four
groups are the U.S. Copyright Office; the Association of American
Publishers (and their affiliates from the Motion Picture and
Recording Industries); various Photographer associations (and stock
image companies); and us --- the "cultural heritage group" (museums,
libraries, archives, universities, independent scholars, documentary
filmmakers, artists and educators).
Negotiations began on March 13th and will continue presumably until
there is a bill introduced and voted upon. The museum/cultural
heritage community is represented by a core group that includes
Peter Jaszi, Jonathan Band, Pru Adler, Jeffrey Cunard and myself.
In this capacity, we are working on statutory language and writing
preliminary legislative history, particularly where amplification is
necessary, under the direction of the Subcommittee counsel (which
has assigned specific tasks). We collaborate regularly with other
colleagues from our respective communities. Other parties have also
been given assignments, but we are optimistic that we can come to
consensus on many of the points that are important to us. The
Senate is also working on this issue, and may introduce a bill
before or after the House does.
I have attached for your information a letter that was sent to
Representative Berman yesterday, who is the ranking member of the
Subcommittee, from seven museums in his home district of Los
Angeles. The letter underscores the fact that publishing activities
of museums are noncommercial and central to our nonprofit,
educational missions, and that the use of orphan works in museum
publications should therefore fall within the limited safe harbor
(which provides in current form that a user shall have no liability
if a use was made for noncommercial purposes and the infringement is
ceased expeditiously; "expeditiously" is a flexible term for which
we are writing legislative history). The letter follows points
previously made in our testimony.
Several MAG colleagues were instrumental in making the letter
happen, including Fred Goldstein, Christine Steiner, Jim Gilson;
Thad Stauber and Jason Hall. It was signed by the Hammer Museum;
Japanese-American National Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art;
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation; Museum of
Contemporary Art; Skirball Cultural Center; and the UCLA Fowler
Museum of Cultural History.
If anyone has any questions about orphan works legislation, please
feel free to give me a call. Otherwise, we will continue to give
periodic updates. I'd also like to note that in working on this
initiative, it has been clear to all of us involved that MAG and the
ALI-ABA conference have provided an invaluable, forum for national
communication and collaboration - thank you to the Smithsonian.
Maria Pallante-Hyun
Associate General Counsel
and Director of Licensing
Guggenheim Museum
T. (212) 360-415
--
Diane M. Zorich
113 Gallup Road
Princeton, NJ 08542 USA
Voice: 609-252-1606
Fax: 609-252-1607
Email: [email protected]
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