Orphan Works Best Practices



Berkeley Law – Orphan Works Best Practices

Over 150 memory institution professionals have contributed to the development of this Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Collections Containing Orphan Works for Libraries and Archives

Main Digital Library Copyright Project Homepage

Over the last several years, libraries, archives and other institutions have recognized that copyright law poses a significant obstacle to digital preservation of—and online access to—large segments of their collections.. This problem especially acute for archives and collections that contain orphan works–i.e., works for which it is difficult or impossible to find rights holders who might give permission for their use. This so-called “orphan works” problem is significant enough that it has led to proposed legislative solutions by members of congress, the U.S. Copyright Office, and private parties. In 2012, members of the Digital Library Copyright Project hosted a major academic symposium with the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology titled Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles and Opportunities to offer new ideas about how to address the orphan works problem. One idea that emerged from those discussions was the development of a best practices in fair use guide. 

The new Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Collections Containing Orphan Works for Libraries, Archives, and Other Memory Institutions (Statement) is the most recent of several frequently-used community-developed best practices of fair use, which includes the Association of Research Libraries’ Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, among others. The Statement is the product of a joint effort between researchers with the Digital Library Copyright Project at the Samuelson Clinic, UC Berkeley, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University, Washington College of Law, and the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University, School of Communication

The new Statement is the result of intense discussion group meetings over the last two years with over 150 librarians, archivists, and other memory institution professionals from around the United States. The Statement documents their ideas about how to apply fair use to collections with orphan works and how to make them available online. It outlines the fair use rationale and identifies best practices in the preservation of, and access to, those collections. 

This best practices statement was facilitated by researchers from the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law; the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University; Washington College of Law; and the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University, School of Communication. 

For more information, including the text of the statement and a list of initial endorsements, please see http://cmsimpact.org/orphanworks. This website will be updated regularly with additional endorsements, names of institutions using the statement, a FAQ, and information about how the Statement has helped improve access to collections. Funding for this project was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 

Media Advisory – Dec. 3, 2014