Three trade associations have announced a further step towards establishing clear rules for users of orphan works. An orphan work is a copyrighted work for which the user is not able to identify and/or contact the legitimate holder to obtain permission to use the work. The three associations are the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) and the Professional /Scholarly Publishing Division (PSP) of the Association of American Publishers.
The associations have said that the newly released 'safe harbour' statement is an evolution in policy and practice from statements and positions announced previously.
Stakeholders around the world are currently debating whether orphan works should be dealt with as a matter of a copyright exception, a reduction in copyright penalties once a "parent" is located, or a blanket collective licence. The view of ALPSP, STM and PSP is that private market solutions are almost always to be preferred, since they are the most likely to provide tangible results. That solution is put forward in the new "safe harbour" document.
The safe harbour document outlines a need for a viable and diligence search request, and identifies resources that should be consulted, including a list of journal publisher imprints that the associations have compiled. Users, who conduct such a search where the owner of such a work is later identified, will be subject only to a normal licence fee and will not be subject to any statutory, punitive or special fees or damages.
A significant number of ALPSP, STM and PSP members have acceded to the safe harbour principles, and it is hoped many more will join shortly. The safe harbour is expected to significantly increase the ability of scholarly users, researchers and writers to utilise varied resources of scholarly and academic journal content for the benefit of all.
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