In 18th century France... A man who was among the most gifted and best-known figures of his time... All his aspirations were concentrated in the elusive kingdom of odours. On the internet European works can be heard, seen or read in every language. But some of them disappear very quickly if copyright has not been respected. The sums of money at stake can be colossal. We remember the debates that took place when Google swept like a wave without resistance across Europe a few years ago, taking ownership in a fairly simple way of whole collections in order to put European works on its own sites. That period provoked a reaction in Europe. A sharp reaction that finally resulted in this vote by a large majority on the law protecting orphan works. The aim is to guarantee better distribution of the European cultural heritage by Europeans themselves. We want to open the door to books, photos, magazines, newspapers, recordings, audio recordings, films, and so on. Libraries, museums, written or audiovisual archives, all the cultural institutions of Europe have now joined the race to digitise their content. But in this race the name of the author of a work is sometimes missing. That's what is meant by orphan works. An orphan work is one for which we can't find the rights holders, i.e. the authors or their heirs or the publisher if the rights have been transferred to them by contract. We might not be able to find them because we've lost all track of them or the person has died without any heirs. There are lots of reasons. We might have a photo in a collection and nothing at all to help us identify the photographer, or the author of a literary text. At the Belgian Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, they restore and preserve the kingdom's works of art. They have also created the richest national photographic inventory in the EU in relation to population size. At least a million photos have had to be digitised and are now accessible online from anywhere in the world. It's a real revolution in the distribution of photographs of the Belgian cultural heritage. The public used to consult photographs here and they bought them. Obviously since we digitised our photos and put them online, we have had a huge drop in the sale of our photos and it has cost us a lot of money to put them online. It was really a public service to make this heritage accessible to the greatest number. It's clear that this large-scale digitisation is revolutionising the approaches in the different disciplines. And we need to think about all of the issues including respect for the creators. Making the European heritage more visible on the internet while respecting its creators is the aim of the law on orphan works. European cultural institutions will be able to place online any work in their possession, as long as they have made a diligent search for the author or the rights holder. The diligent search means that it must be proved that the author is really not known and we can't find any contact with him. And then you can use this work. And later on if the author is found or there is a possibility of contact with him or with the owner of the copyright, there will be proper remuneration. It will be compensation for the effect of the use of this work. There's still a lot to do to link and to put together the different creative and scientific forces to make this diffusion of European cultural heritage really interesting for today's general public. With the European law on orphan works, the Union is taking a decisive step towards the establishment of a European copyright in phase with the challenges of the digital era. The internet jungle will be better controlled by the creators and scientists of tomorrow.
EuroparlTV video ID: 0156bfc0-2c55-4141-ab34-a0e401249fc4
Flashback: Orphan works literature search | |
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| News & Politics | Upload TimePublished on 13 Nov 2012 |
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