- Copyright — orphan works
(a) Have you experienced any difficulties in identifying the owners of copyright content when seeking permission to use that content?
(b) Do you have any suggestions on how this problem could be overcome?
Gowers Review of Intellectual PropertyAt the Enterprise Conference on 2 December 2005, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that, as part of the Pre-Budget Report 2005 package, he was asking Andrew Gowers to lead an Independent Review to examine the UK's intellectual property framework. The Open Rights Group has been formally invited to participate. We are currently drafting our submission and wish to include your thoughts and opinions. We have reproduced the Call for Evidence below and invite you to contribute - just hit 'respond' next to the paragraph you wish to comment on. Many of the questions asked by Andrew Gowers in this review are very focused, but you should feel free to comment on the issues and the wider implications rather than feel obliged to provide specific answers. If you want to talk about issues not raised by this call for evidence, please do - just leave your comments on the Introduction. |
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March 15th, 2006 at 22:21
There’s a huge problem in music and literature not so much with “Orphan Works” but with works that are in Copyright but not made commercially available. This has the effect that copyright is being used as a way of keeping the work out of the market and keeping it unavailable. I think if we are to keep the current copyright terms or extend them, we have to balance that with a requirement to publish. Otherwise the public good is not being served by the temporary monopoly granted to the creator or to those that the creator assigns the rights to.
March 17th, 2006 at 08:28
In response to Zoë Lofgren’s Orphan works bill and the US Copyright Office’s Orphan Works report:
http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/
Lessig has written a very thoughtful paper on the need for registration of copyright works:
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/20060306-lofgren.pdf
I do recommend reading the whole thing, as Larry is, as ever, lucid and clear-thinking, but the essence of it is:
1. New works go into copyright automatically, as now.
2. For copyright to last more than 14 years, the work must be registered with an approved registrar (he suggests competing private registrars)
3. A statutory royalty rate to be defined for works that have been orphaned, held in trust for 5 years or until the author claims it.
4. A way to reclaim ownership of an orphan work, that does not harm any derviatives created during the orphan period.
I think there is a solid basis for a policy recommendation here, that could be adapted to UK Law and presented to Gowers.