Orphan Works - Again!

[Musicman]

There is EU legislation in the wings and proposals have been floating about in the last few months, but it's resurfaced by suddenly being tacked onto legislation actuallly going through parliament.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/err_bill_copyright_amendment/

Analysis A huge expansion of bureaucratic power over UK copyright has been smuggled quietly into draft legislation – giving civil servants the ability to sweep away copyright protection by statutory instrument rather than primary legislation.

The new amendments also allow new agencies to be established to permit the licensing of copyright works without the owner's permission. Such an "extended collective licensing" programme was only outlined last week.

The new amendments, tacked onto the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (ERR) bill yesterday, were absent in the original text. The measures also include new powers to create and regulate collecting societies.

It's all part of the UK's go-it-alone policy under the "orphan works" umbrella, but proposals are far more radical and sweeping than that narrow remit suggests. The Register understands that the Public Bill Committee, which examines the legislation tomorrow, will be whipped into approving it. This is a highly unusual step which ensures the measures are driven through with no chance of amendment.

...

Important bit for us

But large organisations that would like to exploit your stuff – ranging from Associated Newspapers and the BBC to Google – argue that they should merely need to perform a "diligent search" for the owner of an image, and if this draws a blank, should be free to go ahead and use it.

[read the rest of the article in the link]

:thumbsdown: