[BOAI] Re: A2K and orphaned work: the rise of the Open Access Trust Inc

Wed Apr 15 14:47:00 BST 2009

Hi,

I was not aware of these events, which percolate only now to my far
away country.  Too bad, because I have been leading a local fight
against attempts to take undue control of orphan works in Europe, and
wrote a report on the issue (in French ... but I am quite willing to
repeat into English the essential points, or whatever is deemed
useful).

  http://www.datcha.net/orphan/oeuvres-orphelines-BLang.pdf

This paper is actually an annex to an official report (that has
opposite conclusions  - what do you expect ?)

  http://www.cspla.culture.gouv.fr/CONTENU/rapoeuvor08.pdf

I have a page of references on the topic of orphan works, in case it
can help :

   http://www.datcha.net/orphan/

I am reading what is available on the US issue raised here (by the
previous message) to see whether my own experience and work on the
topic can be of any help.  But anyone interested can write directly to
me at bernard.Lang at datcha.net (preferably)

The recent articles I have been reading so far are moderately helpful
... I am looking for one that explains clearly the nature of the
settlement. I find it strange that anyone can settle on behalf of
unreachable rightholders, even with the help of a court ... this seems
incompatible with international treaties.  The USA may have a
different legal system than my country, but international treaties are
the same.

Cordialement

Bernard Lang

P.S.

Actually, I tried to raise concern regarding orphan works in the open
access community, about 15 month ago, even though things seemed then
in a better shape in the USA with the (quite good) Orphan Work Act
proposal which apparently it fell through.  Trying not to spam
everyone, I did it only on Stevan Harnad list, not on the BOAI list.
With very little success:

  Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:10:41 +0200
  From: Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang at inria.fr>
  Subject: Orphan works
  To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM at LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG

  The issue of Orphan Works is more and more discussed in various places.

  Orphan works are works whose right holders cannot be located, for
  example to ask permission to use their work.

  Few countries have a legislation on orphan works, but many are
  preparing some.

  I do not recall that the issue has been discussed on this list, and it
  is not immediately clear whether it should.

  However, my own knowledge of the issue and of some current proposals
  lead me to believe that we should pay attention to it.  One proposal I
  know of would, for example, place any orphan work in the custody on
  collective copyright management.  And collective management
  organizations are not exactly the best friends of open archives.
  Indeed, the proposal I have in mind is strongly pushed by publisher
  associations, and did reach a fairly high political level.

  More generally, there are many people who consider that making
  anything available for free (and devoid of advertising) should be
  somehow forbidden, and be considered a threat to free market,
  democracy, and other free world values.  I am unfortunately not
  joking.

  Questions :

  - do you know whether the issue is raised in the context of open-access ?

  - where ?

  - should it be discussed, and where or how ?

  Bernard Lang

No answer, except for a commercial ad, and Stevan Harnad claim that:

   The question of orphan works is interesting and important, but,
   like so many interesting and important side-issues (1) it is not
   central to Open Access, (2) it risks becoming yet another
   distraction from Open Access, and (3) if we can just stay focused
   on providing Open Access (by self-archiving, and mandating the
   self-archiving of the current refereed journal literature), that
   Open Access itself will be the greatest asset to ensuring that
   orphan works are, in their turn, made Open Access wherever
   possible. ...

and one more positive from Klaus Graf <klausgraf at googlemail.com>
citing Peter Suber and giving also some references:

   The best summary of the orphans problem which has been written in
   German is from Rainer Kuhlen in his new book "Erfolgreiches
   Scheitern" 2008 (pp. 315 sqq.). Kuhlen has also large chapters on
   Open Access he supports as speaker of the
   Urheberrechtsbuendnis. The book is online at:

   http://www.inf-wiss.uni-konstanz.de/RK2008_ONLINE/node/18

   More information on orphans in German and English in my weblog:

   http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=verwaist        german
   http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=orphan          english and german

I did try again :

  Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 12:28:48 +0200
  From: Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang at inria.fr>
  Subject: Re: Nihil obstat  +  orphan works

  BTW, since I am talking.  Is there an interest in orphan works on this
  list.  I am asking because many scientific publications have a
  potential to become orphan works : since the author does not get
  royalties, he has no incentive to leave personal information to be
  tracked after he ceases to be an active professional.

  I am asking because, though the proposed legislation on orphan works
  seems rather well designed in the USA, there are very different
  proposals in Europe that may reveal dangerous.  In a nutshell, orphan
  works would be managed by collective management organizations mostly
  controled by publishers. Where that would lead us is anyone's guess.

  Bernard Lang

which did not receive a single reply.

* Carolina Rossini <carolina.rossini at gmail.com> note le 14-04-09 :
> http://openeducationnews.org/
> A2K and orphaned work: the rise of the Open Access Trust
> Inc<http://openeducationnews.org/2009/04/14/a2k-and-orphaned-work-the-rise-of-the-open-access-trust-inc/>by
> Carolina Rossini
> April 14, 2009 · No Comments
> <http://openeducationnews.org/2009/04/14/a2k-and-orphaned-work-the-rise-of-the-open-access-trust-inc/#respond>
> 
> On April, 13 a group of professors lead by Charles Nesson, Lewis Hyde and
> Harry Lewis requested a pre-motion conference to Judge Denny Chin seeking to
> file a motion to intervene in the case *Authors Guild v. Google.*
> 
> These scholars represent the community of readers, scholars, and teachers
> who use orphaned works.  Orphaned works are works under  copyright, but with
> a copyright holder who has died, cannot be found, or otherwise has
> abandoned his work.  In the status quo, users like us and commercial users
> like Google can and  do use orphaned works, although we do so against a
> backdrop of potential legal liability should  the owner of an orphaned work
> later emerge.
> 
........
........
........

-- 
              Après la bulle Internet, la bulle financière ...
                   Et bientôt la bulle des brevets
       http://www.strategie.gouv.fr/revue/IMG/pdf/article_HS7RL2.pdf
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-kahin/the-patent-bubble_b_129232.html
        la gestion des catastrophes comme principe de gouvernement

Bernard.Lang at inria.fr          ,_  /\o    \o/    Tel  +33 1 3963 5644
http://bat8.inria.fr/~lang/   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Fax  +33 1 3963 5469
           INRIA / B.P. 105 / 78153 Le Chesnay CEDEX / France
        Je n'exprime que mon opinion - I express only my opinion