After researching about orphan works, a topic I barely knew anything about, I feel I have formed a better understanding of how complicated the issues revolving around these works really can become. One solution may seem good at the time and then more issues appear that no one thought of at the time. That is another thing, who should be involved in making up these solutions? It seems that everyone that has a stake in the issue is allowed to make their thoughts on the issue known, but then what? It is up to the government to make the final decisions. Is this right? Should the final say be placed on other organizations or a combination of the government and other organizations?
If other organizations are granted more say in the matter, which ones? I definitely do not think corporations mainly in it for profit should be allowed that power. I was thinking more like the Authors Guild, Illustrators Partnership, etc. But then that might cause more issues. I definitely do not think I would know what would be best, but definitely have come to an understanding that this issue may never be completely settled.
I never thought much about the "parents" of the orphan works as much as I do now. My initial reaction was a yearning to make these works available to the public at least just to view, enjoy, learn from. I didn't think much about how these works could be used, manipulated, or just put back in the market to make a profit for anyone. After trying to find as many different types of sources saying anything about orphan works, I have definitely seen different perspectives on how rulings about how orphan works should be handled can make a big difference in many ways.
As for how this topic is involved with the library environment and managing electronic resources, it definitely can make a difference in many ways. One way would be how librarians can display or use resources. Another might be the amount of electronic resources that may become available in the future. How everyone can use these orphan works whether it is just for learning or profit. The list goes on, but these areas are mainly what I focused on in my research and have enjoyed learning about.
orphan works and abandonware by Christy B Coulter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
1 comment:
I think that this blog really progressed as it went along. Early entries seemed short, especially the one on Google Books, but they became more detailed as they progressed. I think that the orphan works topic provided a richness of subtopics to explore. My favorites were the entries on the MILE project and c-registry, because when I think orphan works I think images. It was interesting, but not surprising with what we have learned about government involvement in copyright and DRM technologies, to learn about what the government has been doing with image recognition to track copyrighted works. I think it was especially telling that c-registry states in their about us section that the database is not meant to function as an orphan works database. The burden of proof lies on the librarian.
I felt that Christy did a very good job of attaching the relevance of the topic to library practices. Her writing was engaging and made me want to learn more about the topic. The blog followed a logical path from introduction, examination of the theory, legislation, specific examples of issues related to the topic, and a summary. One of my early criticisms was that the blog format was not being fully utilized i.e. there were no links to her sources. However, this is of little importance when compared to the content of the blog. Besides, the links were added in later.
I think that the topic is fascinating, especially concerning images. I went to the Copyright Advisory Network session at ALA, and the discussion was dominated by orphan works. "What constitutes a reasonable effort?" "Should we follow the guidelines?" I can understand the desire for guidelines, a path to follow, but while not following guidelines opens one up to a risk of prosecution, following the guidelines creates a risk that the guidelines, which are often more restrictive than the language of the law, become the law. For example, while c-registry looks like a very useful tool, will it become a requirement that libraries use it?
Overall, I felt that the blog did a good job of bringing the various issues of this far-reaching and relevant topic to attention.
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