Sounds like the premise of a blog post in case there are people out there
who'd be inclined to write for the WMUK blog
On 30 October 2014 12:53, Michael Maggs <Michael(a)maggs.name> wrote:
Hi all
The UK government yesterday announced new rules on access to orphan works.
You can see details here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-opens-access-to-91-million-orphan-wor…
Although the headline is “*UK opens access to 91 million orphan works*”,
the reality is a little more prosaic. The new rules allow the UK
Intellectual Property Office to grant users a licence to use an orphan work
on payment of a fee and on the provision of evidence that a ‘diligent
search’ has been undertaken to find the copyright owner.
The rule allowing re-use after diligent search has been part of copyright
law in the UK for many years. The primary purpose of the new licences seems
to be to provide greater certainty to re-users that the searches they have
undertaken are sufficiently extensive to guarantee legal protection should
the copyright owner come forward.
Searches have to be exceptionally comprehensive before the Intellectual
Property Office will certify them as ‘diligent’:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/orphan-works-diligent-search-gui…
This may help a few GLAMs who have high-profile orphan images in their
collections that they would like to use on their websites, but a real
solution to the orphan works problem must await a more radical approach
that goes beyond both this and the existing EU Orphan Works Directive.
Michael
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