The Strategic Content Alliance and the Collections Trust have published a report according to which access to over 50 million items held in trust by publicly funded agencies such as libraries, museums, archives and universities are being prevented from being available online due to current copyright laws. The report 'In from the Cold' shows that millions of so-called 'orphan works' risk becoming invisible because rights holders are not known or easy to trace.
The report was commissioned to find the scale and impact of 'orphan works' on public service delivery. The report shows how the UK is in real danger of losing 20th century materials due to the current copyright laws, the levels of resources needed to trace the rights for each orphan work and the potential lock down of access to these important works. Of the 13 million works represented in the on-line survey, it would take in the region of six million days to trace the rights holders, around 16,000 years.
Over 500 organisations took part in the online survey to establish the impact of orphan works across the museums, archives, libraries and universities.
