joegratz.net

The Copyright Office recently published this Notice of Inquiry in the Federal Register. They seek comments on harm to prospective users of “orphan works” and suggestions for possible legislative or regulatory solutions. Orphan works are those works for which it is difficult to identify the current copyright holder, but which remain protected by copyright. Because prospective users are unable to contact the copyright holder to obtain a license, the works are lost to the culture needlessly. The orphan work problem is one subject of Kahle v. Ashcroft, an ongoing lawsuit against the Attorney General and the Register of Copyrights. (Indeed, one wonders whether the defendants will ask the court to postpone the appeal in Kahle pending the outcome of this regulatory proceeding.)

Comments are due March 25th; reply comments will be due May 9th.

This came as a big, happy surprise to me. We’re a long way from the implementation of any solution, but this is a critical first step. Nothing would please me more than to see the defendants in Kahle v. Ashcroft successfully move to dismiss on the grounds that they fixed the orphan work problem.