For Immediate Release

May 25 , 2006

Contact: Allan Adler
Ph: (202) 220-4544

Publishers Welcome Rapid Movement on “Orphan Works” Bill

A bill introduced in the House earlier this week to  address the problem of “orphan” copyrighted works whose owners cannot be located won approval late yesterday by the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. The Subcommittee’s quick action in “marking-up” the bill was welcomed by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which has been working closely with members of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office in seeking a workable solution to facilitate the use of orphan works. “In light of the limited number of legislative days remaining in this Congress,  we are encouraged by Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith’s determination to move the bill quickly toward passage this year,” said AAP’s  vice president for government and legal affairs Allan Adler.

Mr. Adler pointed out that AAP has long been on record as supporting the development of a legislative solution to the orphan works problem. “It’s important to remember that publishers are not only copyright owners, they are users of copyrighted works eager to see a rational system in place to allow the use of orphan works in the creation of new works. In publishing works of history, biography, criticism, and virtually all kinds of literary works and educational materials, AAP member publishers have considerable experience in seeking permission to use discrete copyrighted works such as photographs and correspondence. They understand the problems that can arise when a copyright owner cannot be identified and located in order to obtain necessary permissions, and they would welcome a change in the copyright law that helps to address these issues.”

He noted that the  bill introduced on May 22 by Congressman Smith (H.R. 5439, the “Orphan Works Act of 2006), is the outgrowth of a year-long study conducted by the U.S. Copyright Office, in which AAP participated.  At  House hearings in March of this year, AAP urged Congress to follow most of the Copyright Office recommendations by “fine-tuning” existing law, taking a minimalist approach in creating new provisions governing the use of copyrighted orphan works.  AAP took part in extensive negotiations among the various interested parties to draft the current legislation. “While not perfect, H.R. 5439 goes a long way in establishing a rational approach to provide that if the user of a copyrighted work has performed a reasonably diligent but ultimately unsuccessful search to locate the copyright owner, and that owner later turns up and sues for infringement, the user would be entitled to have the benefit of limitations on the compensation and injunctive remedies that the owner could obtain,” Mr. Adler said.

The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300  members include most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.

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