Orphan Works Bill: Is The Sky Really Falling?
April 29th, 2008 Daryle Dickens Posted in Art History |
The visual arts community is currently buzzing about the Orphan Works Bill that was brought before the House by Rep. Howard Berman [D-CA] and the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]. If you have not heard you may be wondering what "Orphan Works" are. The U.S. Copyright office states that orphaned works are copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate.
Basically this law would allow use of those orphaned works if the owner can not be identified or found after certain search requirements are met. Researching this you will find polar opinions from the idea that without a copyright lawyer retained you will not have any protection to the notion that the bill will not even pass.
I lean toward the latter. It is not just an election year, it is a Presidential election year. A bill relating to the arts is not going to get enough attention to be addressed and voted on. I know that does not mean it will go away forever but it will take steam out of it. (This is not the first time it has been introduced.) But if by chance one day the bill does pass and become law it will be in the hands of the courts as to how much power the law gives those that choose to use works they deem orphaned.
Want to keep an eye on the bills? You can track the House bill here. And the Senate bill here.
To me the real question is why is Congress spending their time on this? I would imagine there are human orphans that could use this kind of attention.
That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong,
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