Rescue Orphan Works in the House

Orphan Works

The House and Senate both introduced new legislation to allow for greater use of so-called “orphan works” — books, music, photos, movies or other works whose owners can’t be found. Why are these bills important? Because there are literally millions of works in existence that are currently under copyright protection but for which the copyright owner cannot be easily found. Because if you use a copyrighted work without permission, you could be on the hook for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work, orphans go unused.

The House bill — H.R. 5889: The Orphan Works Act of 2008 (PDF link) — goes a long way to address these issues and if passed, would grant the public access to millions of previously inaccessible works of art, though it needs improvements! Please fill out the information below to send your Representatives a letter urging they improve and support the bill.

Your Letter

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I am writing to ask you to support H.R. 5889, *The Orphan Works Act of 2008*.  The bill addresses a problem under copyright law that stops copyrighted works from being used when their owners cannot be found.  These works are called "orphans" and there are millions of them that go unused today because filmmakers, libraries, archives, museums, and publishers are afraid of being sued. Penalties for using an "orphan work" without permission can be as high as $150,000 if the original copyright owner appears.

H.R. 5889 allows for orphan works to be used, so long as the user does a "qualifying search" for the owner.  In the off chance the original owner surfaces after the search, he is compensated for the use.  The bill goes out of its way to prevent "bad faith" users from gaming the system, but is balanced enough to not make it burdensome for the honest users.

The bill includes a "Notice of Use Archive," a limit on how an orphan can be used, and an extra fee just because a work was registered.  These sections would add costs and put more burdens on users that would limit their use of orphan works.  I would urge you to take out those sections of H.R. 5889.

Lastly, H.R. 5889 authorizes services that would let owners upload their photos or other visual works to online databases so that the owners could be found later if someone else wanted to use the work.  These services are a good idea, but the bill should be changed to guarantee the public free access to search them, including through Internet search engines.  Please support this small but important change to the bill.

I urge you to make the above changes to H.R. 5889, and support its passage.

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Rescue Orphan Works in the House

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