more on orphan works

["Carrie Russell" <crussell@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another orphan works point:



In recent orphan works discussions on the Hill, certain interests would
like the US Copyright Office to define a reasonable search.  In a way,
the Office already does in their "asking for permission" circular.  Of
course, we knew going in that, depending on the format and publication
status, reasonable searches would look different.  Looking for
permission to use a news article will always be different than looking
for permission to use a musical score etc.  But what we also need to
explain (and we do have a zillion examples to help do this), is that
even within a category (published books, for example), one will take
differing routes - sometimes renewal records, sometimes looking at
probate records, sometimes business records to find out who bought a
publishing company, etc. The majority of all reasonable searches will
look different.



What seems to be most important to me is lowering the level of
reasonable.  The search cannot be too onerous because people will end up
not using orphan works because they don't have the time, money or
expertise to spend weeks looking for a copyright holder. We gain
nothing. This will be another area - like fair use - when we have to
accept some ambiguity and some willingness to take a risk.



I guess what I am saying is that best practices for reasonable searches
should remain fairly general. Provide guidance but not to the level of
exhaustion. We have many sources that already do this (Crews, Harper
etc).  Let's not raise the bar. Those who are risk averse can be
exhaustive if they choose, but we shouldn't promote that.



In my opinion, we over-reacted to the requirements for TEACH. We made it
too hard to be compliant. Let's not do that again. By our own behavior,
let's shape the law in our interests.



-Carrie Russell

Copyright Specialist

ALA Washington Office

Office for Information Technology Policy

1615 New Hampshire Avenue NW First Floor

Washington, DC 20009

crussell@xxxxxxxxxxx