Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The problem of orphan works
Advancing technology, and thus the declining costs of digitization, is
the key to mass digitization projects in libraries, archives and museums.
This mass digitization creates new problems which hinder online
availability to a bigger audience. Digitization is an act that is protected
by copyright and requires the permission of the rights holder. Often the
rights holder can be neither identified nor located, and in such cases we
speak of an 'orphan work'. The costs and effort involved in the search
for rights holders, and the copyright problems connected to orphan
works, have discouraged organizations holding analogue content from
digitizing it on a large scale. The average proportion of orphan works
in collections across the UK's public sector has been estimated at 5% to
10%, while in certain sectors (archives) the proportion is higher (Korn,
2009).
Implications for dissemination and preservation work
Solving the problem of orphan works gained high importance with the
development of the European Digital Library Europeana, the provider
of a common multilingual access point to Europe's digital cultural
heritage. The European Commission launched the initiative in 2005 as
part of its overall strategy to boost the digital economy under the i2010
initiative (European Commission, 2005).
At an early stage, the European Commission sensed that copyright
constituted an obstacle to realizing a European digital library. To
establish the extent of the problem and formulate a solution, a High
Level Expert Group on European Digital Libraries was set up,
consisting of representatives of cultural heritage institutions and
organizations of rights holders. A crucial question to be answered by
this group was what different actions and arrangements could be
undertaken jointly by stakeholders to reduce the tensions surrounding
copyright. In June 2008 the High Level Expert Group adopted the
Final Report on Digital Preservation, Orphan Works and Out-of-Print Works
,
which established the basic points of departure for digitizing cultural
heritage (European Commission, 2008). Digitizing works of cultural
heritage, and onsite and online use of the digitized works, are only
possible with the permission of the rights holders, or should be based on
the limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights of the rights
