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Orphan Works legislation: Round two

By Georgia Harper

Congress reportedly will try to pass orphan works legislation again this session, introducing a bill as early as this week. After its March 13 hearing, at which 6 interested parties presented testimony (including the Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, and representatives of the 2006 bill's most vehement opponents, free-lance photographers), the stage appears set for another try. Molly Kleinman's take is positive; Tom Richmond's is hostile. Reportedly, the photographers have gotten concessions and are supposedly onboard, but Tom's blog post certainly doesn't suggest that it's a done deal. I read Marybeth Peters' testimony (see link above) and she talks about some of the changes from the last bill. One that concerns me the most is the idea that the industries will define a reasonable search. I reviewed one such proposed definition, and found it daunting. It was clearly designed with other publishers in mind, given their corporate resources, and their likely intent to profit from the use of the work contributing to their willingness to spend considerable time and money chasing down every rabbit track. This does not seem like a good idea for nonprofit entities making nonprofit uses. As I commented at the time, the proposal suggested that all the rigor of adopting real human orphans should be applied to making even nonprofit uses of abandoned copyrighted works. Well, let's prepare ourselves. It's either going to work or it's not, but if it doesn't, the problem of orphan works is not going away.

Full post as published by ©ollectanea on March 30, 2008 (boomark / email).