[Advocacy Advisors] Federal Register RfC on orphan works

[Stevie Benton]

The orphan works issue is an important one. The Free Knowledge Advocacy
Group EU (an affiliation of European chapters) is actually calling for
change to the European Commission on this very issue. Some information on
this can be seen at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy

Thanks and regards,

Stevie


On 13 February 2014 13:30, Bob Kosovsky <bobkosovsky at nypl.org> wrote:

> I recently joined this list specifically because of orphan works
> legislation.  I recently wrote an opinion piece on public domain for The
> Signpost (user:Kosboot) and I saw a similar plea on the WMF blog.  Though
> I'm only a lowly editor, I would hope WMF would take a stand on the orphan
> works issue.  Part of the technique of negotiation is that you ask for
> more, knowing that the result will be less than what you ask for.  So I
> think WMF should be really bold and ask for something like treating orphan
> works as if public domain if no one comes forward.  I think it would be
> wise to parse some of Maria Pallante's words (she's the US Register of
> Copyright) to see what is her thinking on the matter (she seems to be more
> liberal than most had expected).
>
> In any case, I'd be happy to work on such a project.
>
>
> Bob Kosovsky, Ph.D. -- Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts,
> Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
> blog:  http://www.nypl.org/blog/author/44   Twitter: @kos2
>  Listowner: OPERA-L ; SMT-TALK ; SMT-ANNOUNCE ; SoundForge-users
> - My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions -
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 4:06 AM, Mathias Schindler <
> mathias.schindler at wikimedia.de> wrote:
>
>> 2014-02-13 1:51 GMT+01:00 Luis Villa <lvilla at wikimedia.org>:
>> > On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 2:21 PM, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari at wikimedia.org>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hey guys,
>> >> The U.S. Federal Register is doing an RfC and Public Roundtable on the
>> >> issue of orphan works. I would really like for us to take this as an
>> >> opportunity to push for U.S. adoption of the "rule of the shorter
>> term", as
>> >> this would solve our URAA problems on Commons and free millions of
>> orphan
>> >> foreign works in the U.S.
>> >
>> >
>> > I had been aware of this, but hadn't raised it here because most of the
>> > orphan works proposals I'm aware of are a lot like fair use - nice(ish)
>> for
>> > lots of users, but not giving us the certainty we like to have when
>> > creating/distributing materials. But a rule of shorter term proposal
>> would
>> > definitely give address one part of the orphan works problem in a way
>> that
>> > would give us the certainty we like/need.
>>
>> Greetings from Europe, where we can say "been there, done that" with
>> respect to Orphan Works legislation
>> (
>> http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:299:0005:0012:EN:PDF
>> ).
>>
>> In short, the EU orphan works directive does not benefit Wikipedia for
>> many reasons. First, we are not among the priviledged institutions
>> (Article 1) and the permitted uses of orphan works are far too narrow
>> to help open content projects (Article 6). On top of that, the
>> dilligent search procedure as required by Article 3 is incompatible
>> with the idea of mass digitisation and the possibility to end the
>> orphan work status (Article 5) is fundamentally against the idea of a
>> lasting commons of works that can be built upon.
>>
>> The consultation work by the US Federal Register should have a close
>> look at the way Europe did it.
>>
>> I strongly recommend participation in this RfC by US based open
>> content projects with fundamentally different needs than, for example,
>> google or a public library.
>>
>> Mathias
>>
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-- 

Stevie Benton
Head of External Relations
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton

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