RE: Orphan works: due diligence prior to copying

["Croft, Janet B." <jbcroft@xxxxxx>]

And to plug the ALA Copyright Advisory Network a bit, we're working on a wiki,
which would be a great place to put a summary of this discussion with links to
resources.  I already have a paragraph started on the current state of orphan
works legislation in the US, and it would be great to fill it out with some
best practices.  In the meantime, Canada has had a process in place for some
time.  Here is some information:
http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/unlocatable/brochure-e.html. Adapting their criteria
may be a good way to start. Excerpt:

Have you done everything you can to find the copyright owner?

The Board will grant a licence only if you have made every reasonable effort
to find the copyright owner. You must therefore conduct a thorough search.
There are many ways you can locate a copyright owner. Try as many as you can
before applying to the Board.

Even if you do not know the name or address of the copyright owner, your
search may be easier than you think. Start by contacting the copyright
collective societies that deal with uses you are interested in. One of them
may represent the copyright owner and be able to provide you with the owner's
name and address or tell you whether the owner is dead or living abroad. Other
options include using the Internet, contacting publishing houses, libraries,
universities, museums and provincial departments of Education. If the author
is no longer alive, try to find out who inherited the copyright or who
administered the estate.

The Board can provide you with a list of copyright collective societies and
their respective mandate and other sources of information. The list of
copyright collective societies can also be found on the Board's Web site at
www.cb-cda.gc.ca/societies/index-e.html.


Janet Brennan Croft
Associate Professor
Head of Access Services
University of Oklahoma Libraries
Bizzell 104NW
Norman OK 73019
405-325-1918
Fax 405-325-7618
jbcroft@xxxxxx
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/
http://libraries.ou.edu/
Editor of Mythlore http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore.html
Editor of Oklahoma Librarian
http://www.oklibs.org/oklibrarian/current/index.html
"Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the rising ape meets
the falling angel." -Terry Pratchett


-----Original Message-----
From: Harper, Georgia K [mailto:gharper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:59 PM
To: M. Claire Stewart; digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Orphan works: due diligence prior to copying

Claire, this is precisely what all of us should be working to create and
publish to the Web -- our own estimates of what we think, for different
kinds of works, constitutes a reasonable search. Librarians are in an
excellent position to know what resources are out there and what
resources are reasonably effective, which are a waste of time, etc.

What we *really* need is a collection of such estimates, but I suppose a
google search is as good as it's likely to get: something like, "what is
reasonable search copyright owner." I did that and got a lot of
interesting things, but no definition of a reasonable search in any
medium (for any type of work). Let's get busy!!

G


Georgia Harper
Scholarly Communications Advisor
University of Texas at Austin Libraries
512.495.4653; 512.971.4325 (c)

-----Original Message-----
From: M. Claire Stewart [mailto:claire-stewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:34 PM
To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Orphan works: due diligence prior to copying

Hello,

This question has come up twice in different contexts over the past
month, so I thought I'd ask the list:

I'm looking for a set of procedures that a library would follow in
attempting to secure permission to copy before making a decision that
the work is likely an orphan. Does anyone have anything to recommend?
I'm already aware of Denise Troll Covey's excellent CLIR publication
on securing permissions for digitizing books, but would love to have
other examples, articles, etc.

With thanks,
Claire
--
____________________________________________________
M. Claire Stewart
Head, Digital Collections
Northwestern University Library
(847) 467-1437
claire-stewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://hdl.handle.net/2166/claire