Now the markets will have their go at orphan works
Google Book Search Example
As I commented on Collectanea at the time that the latest Congressional effort to deal with orphan works failed, now it’s time to try a process other than legislative “compromise.” Public Knowledge did a fabulous job of describing the horse trading that goes on behind the scenes to try to get legislation past the numerous barriers. PK still holds out hope that next session the bills will come to reflect the perfect combination of freedom to use orphan works and protection for the interests of those copyright owners caught in the cross-fire between new technological capabilities and old-fashioned sloppiness about attribution and keeping contact information about owners up to date. “Who cared?” “Who knew we needed to care?” “We didn’t care — we didn’t need to.” My how things have changed.
So, Google Book Search is freeing itself from the constraints of a gazillion billion dollars worth of lawsuits and walking off into the bright sunshine of ‘tomorrow’s another day,’ arm and arm with the publishers and authors who still disagree with it about whether Google’s original plan was fair use, but hey, that plan is so 2004. It’s 2008 and almost 2009 and we’ve got some books to find, browse, read and download, some to buy and download (and pretty soon maybe buy in other ways besides download). So a new approach to orphans, at least orphan books. And as PK authors point out, this is just about books. They note we may still need legislation for the other kinds of media. But I give the markets a much better chance of success than legislation. Not just success as in, “oh, you actually reached an agreement that doesn’t allow one side to purposely cripple the other,” but success as in, “oh, you actually reached an agreement that will work, in practice, to enable identification and use of orphan books.” Not that it will be easy and without fits and starts (I have expressed my own concerns about the lack of transparency in the Book Rights Registy), but I think these book guys and gals have a much better sense of the benefits for everyone than the gangs that conspired to torpedo the legislative effort (and are therefor motivated to make it work, rather than motivated to make it not work). Well, let’s see what happens. At least something will happen.
