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Re: [ARSCLIST] Orphan works
Trey Bunn wrote:
On May 24, 2006, at 5:27 PM, Mike Richter wrote:
A variation on the theme:
You have a recording of a work in the public domain but lack
information on its origin. You want to use it, but need to publicize
it in order to find out who has the rights. That might mean CD copies
sent to the experts in the field, Internet posting with requests to
audition sent to appropriate groups, or similar devices.
As I understand the law (with or without the orphan-works
legislation), you can't publish even to that limited extent without a
license; you can't get the license without finding the holder(s) of
rights; you can't find them without publishing.
However, could you use the Fair Use get-out-of-court-free card and send
around a 20 or 30 second sample of the work? A representative sample
and enough metadata (even if it's made up, e.g. "Appears to be a
recording from the 1940s of an elderly woman snoring through a
harmonica for 4 minutes, 28 seconds") could possibly turn up some
results, and that would seem to be within the boundaries of the law
(including making every effort to find the original author).
In the U.S., "fair use" is a weak reed on which to lean except in
reviewing the work. In part due to abuses (the teacher copied a complete
in-print book for each student), the rules have become even cloudier
than before.
Mike
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mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/