Internal:Public Policy/Orphan works/Notes

2006 Report on Orphan Works

Notes on it by Econterms (talk)

• The 2006 proposal by the Copyright Office, makes a proposal about what to do about orphan works.
• the proposal seems appropriate to me -- that the user must do a "diligent search", and if a copyright owner surfaces after a work has been classified as an "orphan" and used, that the copyright owner's recovery/penalty is capped.
• It appears that the Copyright Office-drafted legislation in this report didn't become law, but did show up in House and Senate versions ; I haven't yet seen an explanation of why or how it didn't get done.
• They may be holding the 2014 workshops to rebuild support for it or something like it.
• Basically it says the user of an orphan work has to make "diligent" efforts to find the proper owner and license it. The Copyright Office does or would have materials online to help the person search and "diligent" would be defined partly by evidence that the user had used those materials. Potential users who can't find the owner could use the material, labeling it as an orphan work. Seems good to me. Can we back that? And/or, is the labeling requirement excessive for Wikimedia?
• Orphan works are works whose copyright owners cannot be identified or cannot be located, and therefore permission cannot be obtained from them for using the works. Page 35 says the definition excludes works for which it is not known whether a copyright currently applies, e.g. because creation date or location or creator are unknown. That report refers to such situations as "problems determining copyright status. Wikimedia DC would definitely prefer that the legislation includes such cases, which are just like orphans in our practice. See our Oak Ridge example for a case like that. However, for clarity of communication, note that the Copyright Office report did not call those orphan works.
• The report categorizes people who want to use orphan works. Wikimedians are mainly "large access" users, and also sometimes "enthusiast" users. (Relatedly, this means we can give up any particular orphan work -- we're not inscribing it permanently in stone or a movie shot. Instead we are high volume users who want it to be easy to manage orphan works en masse. We're unlikely to pay for cases of infringement -- we'll take any such file down.)
• Section IV.B (pp 44-59) discusses existing laws that relate to orphan works and give users some freedom. None of them seems to be generally relevant for Wikimedia so let's not comment in detail on them, but for background here's a sketch. The "sections" seem to refer to the Copyright Act of 976 and/or patches it put on previous laws. Section 108(h) authorizes educational nonprofits to use copyrighted works for display purposes in the last 20 years of their copyright period ; this is part of the 1998 Sonny Bono 20-year extension to copyrights. Section 115(b) is about compulsory licenses, which a copyright holder may have to give/authorize. Section 504(c)(2) limits damages a reasonable good-faith user would have to pay after using a work that was not plainly copyrighted or a search for an owner came up empty. (The 2006 report says these damage-limits have not been controversial, and we like anyone want them to be incorporated into new/larger/easier orphan-works-use rules and systems, but it is not worth talking about much---we are hunting bigger game.) Sections 203, 304(c), and 304(d) address "termination" of copyrights when there probably is a copyright but an owner wasn't found, and it includes the idea of a "reasonable investigation" which is a model for the "diligent search" idea in later proposals and which we can support. Section 102(b) says an idea can be reused even when its expression is copyrighted in text, or computer programs, or images (pp 53-55). Section 107 defines "fair use" (pp55-56). Section 108 gives libraries and archives some permissions regarding preservation of a copyrighted work. Section 117 gives some permissions regarding software, e.g. backups and alterations, usually associated with an abandoned copyright -- e.g., company went out of business) ; these cases are called "abandonware."

related notes and comments by econterms

• Orphan works are not free content and cannot go onto Commons by Wikimedia's own rules. Antony-22 takes the view that an orphan work classification is freer than a "fair use" classification, and therefore better for Wikimedia. We'll want an example of how and why that is, at some point. Note for future reference that we can classify an upload as both "orphan" and "fair use", gaining slight freedom-benefits from each of those.
• Antony-22 says the copyright office did not include a "registration requirement" that would require registering the use of an orphan work, or the classification of the work as an orphan, in some kind of registry. They considered it, then did not include it. Our clear preference is that a registration requirement is avoided. However, it would probably be good for there to be optional registries. Wikimedia uploads are already searchable in a way that makes them registry-like. Antony-22 points out that Wikimedia could also semi-automatically do searches of itself and other registries at the time of an upload. Or, bots could review that afterward. Wikidata services can help at some stage, since we'll have VIAF and other lists of authors and publishers.

Wikimedia Deutschland statement on orphan works

Source: WMDE Statement on Orphan Works, Berlin, August 10, 2012

This statement was in response to a proposal, but the proposal was not really summarized. Notes and comments by Econterms (talk):

• orphan works in their definition have been "handed over to an organization" -- so there's some difference from our definition
• Regarding "diligent search" (the same term used in the U.S.): "It would . . . be desirable to specify the sources that are to be consulted in such a way as to create a specific, conclusive list. This would help to keep search costs to a minimum and would create the necessary legal certainty." (I'm inclined to agree)
• "It is also important that all the listed sources are, without exception, freely accessible within the meaning of the 8 Principles of Open Government Data (http://www.opengovdata.org/home/8principles). This is the only way to ensure the availability of low-cost, professional search services and to encourage the development of appropriate business models." (agreed)
• "It is . . . crucial to establish open standards for the catalog and thus create the conditions necessary to simplify the development of appropriate business models and to boost competition within the digitization market." -- note here the idea that the use of orphan works is oriented toward business/competitive use ; not my focus
• "It is also very much in the interests of publishing houses and collecting societies that their catalogs are included in the search. If they are, it will be possible to identify the rightholders of certain works and to conclude contracts on the digital use of those works."
• "Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. believes that it is crucial that commercial partners are involved in searching for rightholders and in preparing works and making them available so that the necessary resources for the comprehensive projects exist. . . [and] the public sector struggles to handle large-scale digitization projects."
• ". . . governments need to systematically rule out the “free-rider” problem. This refers to the danger that rightholders might wait until their work has been digitized and possibly “upgraded” (e.g. restored) before claiming back their rights and using the works themselves. To address this issue, countries need a regulation that would require rightholders to reimburse the cost of digitizing a work if they use it for commercial gain after it has been digitized."
• "The current copyright situation means that much of the cultural material of the 20th century cannot be made publically accessible. This is not in the interests of users or rightholders. We therefore need a regulation that allows all those interested in doing so to make works accessible in a legally certain way that does not involve incalculable economic risks."
• "we fear that the proposed regulation will not provide an adequate solution to the problem of orphan works, particularly as it is limited to only a few privileged players. . . it is unclear why the group of privileged institutions tasked with digitizing orphan works and making them publically accessible remains limited to such a small number." (this refers to aspects of a solution---designated organizations doing the digitizing---that does not seem to come up in the U.S. proposals)
• "the catalog of provisions (Article 1(2) a-c) does not include photographs unless they have been published in books, magazines or journals. It can be said that the huge number of unpublished or uncataloged photographs for which the copyright and context of their origin can no longer, or only with great difficulty, be ascertained forms the main supply of orphan works. In the context of providing images for a free online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia, this material is an invaluable source for illustrating entries on topics like contemporary history. During the consultation process on the proposal for the directive, the interests of commercial photo agencies were apparently given priority over those of the general public. This is a major failing of the proposal." (the U.S. proposals do not seem to face this problem)
• "the proposal for the directive still does not provide a genuine incentive for mass digitization. The text does not specify either the time period or the exact process involved in a “diligent search”. However, the search methods and parameters to be used must be defined in order to help prevent a serious underuse of cultural works in the future."
• "it would be a good idea to encourage rightholders to make these works available under a free license. . . the ShareAlike clause contained in certain Creative Commons licenses can prevent “free riders” from acquiring works for their exclusive use."

More sources to review

• Andrew Orlowski. The Register. 29 Apr 2013 UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone nowr
• Materials from big Berkeley Law conference on orphan works. Wow. Slides are there; they are reviewable.