“Even though we were disappointed that the orphan works bill got tied up with other copyright issues, we had really hoped to see action on it this session,” Miriam Nisbet, legislative counsel to the American Library Association, told American Libraries. There is no companion bill in the Senate.
On May 22, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) introduced the original orphan works bill, known as the Orphan Works Act of 2006 (H.R. 5439), to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. Under its terms, infringers of orphan works would suffer only limited damages provided they had made diligent efforts to locate the copyright holder. The bill also specified that libraries that discontinued infringing upon an orphan work would not be liable for damages. If such a violation continued, a library would pay only “reasonable compensation” rather than actual or statutory damages.
A group of five library associations known as the Library Copyright Alliance initiated action in March 2005 by filing comments with the U.S. Copyright Office in support of changing laws regarding orphan works. The alliance noted several examples of how a library can make use of orphan works, including a university library’s digitization of print works for preservation or a public library’s creation of a collection of local historic photographs. In January 2006, the U.S. Copyright submitted its Report on Orphan Works to the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with its recommended legislative changes.
“Libraries will absolutely renew their efforts on an orphan work solution in the next Congress,” said Nisbet.
Posted September 29, 2006.