Comments on: HathiTrust Acknowledges Flaws in Handling ‘Orphan Works’

By: sand6432

sand6432 — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 01:43:00 +0000

Publishers have long been in the business of identifying orphan works as part of their rights workflow. Perhaps the HathiTrust might have benefited from consulting some publishers about how they go about this procedure? Before the Google library project began, academic libraries had little reason to be concerned about the copyright status of books in their collections.—Sandy Thatcher

By: austinbarry

austinbarry — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:19:00 +0000

How about this – HathiTrust charges nominal royalties on “orphan” works in return for indemnifying the users of those works against any claims. The royalties would be used to pay for the considerable expense in identifying owners of “orphan” works and for settling claims with the owners.

By: d_fevens

d_fevens — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Mr. Courant [Paul Courant, dean of libraries at the University of Michigan.] bristled at the characterization of his library’s effort. “I plead not guilty of elfin whimsy,” he said, noting that the library has set up a careful, time-consuming, and expensive procedure to determine whether a book is truly orphaned—an effort it announced in May. (U. of Michigan Tests Murky Waters of Copyright Law by Offering Digital Access to Some ‘Orphan’ Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2011)

Douglas

By: d_fevens

d_fevens — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:02:00 +0000

U. of Michigan Copyright Sleuths Start New Project to Investigate Orphan Works, The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 16, 2011 Douglas Fevens, Halifax, Nova Scotia The University of Wisconsin, Google, & Me

By: d_fevens

d_fevens — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:45:00 +0000

It is my understanding that it took no particular skill or special database to find parties that may have an interest in the works that the HathiTrust had put forward as possible orphans. It only required that there be a sincere wish to find the rights holders for it to be so.

By: mbelvadi

mbelvadi — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:19:00 +0000

Although it may have started with a lawsuit, it would be great if this were the beginning of a partnership between libraries and the Guild to help identify authors of works that libraries can’t find. In the end, the academic community just wants to be able to use the works legally, and anyone who steps up to the plate to connect the potential user with the owner so that they can negotiate a use license when legally required is doing both a great service.