Copyright & the Orphan Works Issue

Orphan works are perceived to be inaccessible because of the risk of infringement liability that a user might incur if and when a copyright owner subsequently appears. Consequently, many works that are, in fact, abandoned by owners are withheld from public view and circulation because of uncertainty about the owner and the risk of liability. This book defines the problems it identifies, and concludes that the problem is indeed real and should be addressed legislatively. It analyses stakeholders’ views on the issue and constraints on solutions imposed by the structure of U.S. copyright law and international copyright obligations. The book sets forth a proposal to amend the Copyright Act by adding a provision that would limit liability for infringing use of orphan works when, prior to use, a user performs a reasonably diligent search for the copyright owner and provides attribution to the author and copyright owner, if possible. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.