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The European Parliament has announced an “informal deal” that it says will allow greater access to orphan works.  According to the announcement “According to the agreed text, a work would be deemed to be orphan if, after a ‘diligent’ search made in good faith, it was not possible to identify or locate the copyright holder. The draft legislation lays down criteria for carrying out the search. Works granted orphan status would be then made public, through digitisation and only for non-profit purposes.”

MEPs did agree that rightholders who claim works after their placement into the public domain should receive compensation, but the deal includes “a provision to protect public institutions from the risk of having to pay large sums to authors who show up later.”

The agreement will need approval from Parliament and the Council to take effect.

Andrew Orlowski, editor of The Register published a column calling the deal a “copyright free-for-all landgrab” and saying that “The European Parliament has agreed to bless draft proposals on orphan works that are similar to a compulsory purchase order with minimal compensation. It’s essentially an argument about using other people’s stuff without their permission.”

Anne-Catherine Lorrain from COMMUNIA analyzed the announcement in a blog, which notes that the deal is based on the 2011 draft “Directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works” (COM/2011/0289), but that the text of the informal deal has yet to be released:  “We still don’t know the exact wording of these provisions and their genuine impact on ‘orphan works’ use for public institutions… we are waiting for the consolidated version of the Directive to be formally released to further comment on it. More to come soon (probably this week).”

For more information

• Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch. “EU Negotiators Tentatively Agree On Plan For Orphan Works.”
• Benjamin Fox for the EU Observer. EU deal moves toward pan-European copyright rules.