Reminder: please offer comments! I'm planning on getting something in by the May 9 5:00 pm EDT deadline (it's not May 5 as mentioned) below. More: On Sun, Apr 17, 2005 at 09:33:41PM +0200, Branko Collin wrote:
From what I understand, no PG volunteer (not counting John Mark Ockerbloom) has posted a comment to the US Copyright Office's RFC about "orphan works".
So now US copyright policy will be guided by comments such as Kristie Hubler's: "If people have access to my work without paying for it, and using it just to make a buck, it would be as if I were being raped, or having a child I bore ripped out of my arms, never to be seen again."
The nature of the comments that can still be submitted are "reply comments." If you find particularly good documents to reply to (either because they say something great, or something terrible), please let me know.
It may very well be possible that PG volunteers have no opinion about orphan works. In that case, consider this e-mail message not sent.
We actually have a draft rule to apply for such orphaned works, but it is not in place yet because we have not received sufficient legal guidance for me to feel comfortable applying it (in case you didn't already know this, as CEO my main most important role, though not usually one that takes the most of my time, is to manage PGLAF's risk. The majority of our risk comes from decisions we make about the copyright status of works we distribute). I am appending our "rule 9 howto" draft below, in case you're interested. This draft is *not* for use. We are *not* taking "rule 9" clearance requests. It is *not* legal advice. The URLs mentioned don't work. All that said, I think it is approximately consistent with our understanding of the current copyright law in the US.
If you are concerned about orphan works, now is your last chance to be heard. You can send reply comments to the US Copyright Office until May 5, 2005. The rules are explained here: <http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/>
May 9, 5:00 pm EDT.
Initially some 700 comments were submitted. It's hard to read through all of them, so I suggest Googling for abstracts, looking for the usual suspects et cetera.
I'm looking at http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/ and only see about 150 comments. Maybe they removed duplicates (a lot of folks probably submitted some sort of template)? Still, a lot of reading.
There's an unused Wiki running at <http://www.gutenberg.org/cgi-bin/wiki-newsletter.cgi>. I suggest you use that for sharing notes.
(Still unused...)
Do not wait for an official PG position statement. Official statements are hard to draft, because they require consensus. Also, official statements tend to sound impersonal, exactly because they represent a consensus position. There is nothing wrong with sounding like you actually care (although I would leave the Hubler-style hysterics at home).
Concur!!! It's OK to just write a brief comment reply that says you agree with someone, or disagree with someone. It doesn't need to be a huge essay, and you do not need to be an expert about copyright. If you want to read a primer on copyright changes, see our copyright HOWTO at http://gutenberg.org/howto/copyright , especially the section after "Rule 8" (read the background stuff). -- Greg Here's the draft Rule 9, which you should *not* try to use yet: RULE 9 HOW-TO ------------- *DRAFT* NOT FOR USE This copyright rule allows Project Gutenberg to distribute materials that may still be under copyright protection but are not currently available at a reasonable cost. In order to suppport Section 108(h) clearances, we have started a list of items we believe it applies to at this Web address: http://pglaf.org/copyright The list is available for additions by any bona fide library or archive which has performed due diligence to demonstrate a work qualifies for a Section 108(h) exception. Someday, the publishers themselves or another body may form such a registry, but currently none exists that we know of so we have started our own. To demonstrate a book qualifies for a statutory license for redistribution under Section 108(h), submit the results of your research demonstrating: 1. The book is not subject to "normal commercial exploitation." Basically, this means that nobody is making money by selling the book, i.e., in new or used bookstores. 2. The book cannot be obtained at a "reasonable price." You can demonstrate both by searching libraries, new and used book vendors (i.e., amazon.com) and antiquarian book services (i.e., abebooks.com) to see whether the book is available and, if so, for a reasonable price. Our rules of thumb: - Copies of the book cost over $100. or are otherwise considered rare - Research indicates fewer than 100 copies of the book are available for sale - The book is largely unavailable in libraries (i.e., for free loan), with fewer than 100 circulating copies in US libraries Submit the outcome of your research, along with the usual title page and verso scans, via http://beryl.ils.unc.edu/copy.html For library research, use the online catalogs at locations such as the public libraries in NY, Chicago and San Franscisco, and large University libraries such as Berkeley, Harvard and Urbana-Champaign. Under this rule, your physical location is irrelevant -- so, if the NY Public has the only surviving copy and you live in Queens, that doesn't mean you are ineligible to ask for Section 108(h) exemption. Here is the text of Title 17 Section 108(h) of the United States Code. For the complete code, visit http://thomas.loc.gov or http://www4.law.cornell.edu Section 108: (h)(1) For purposes of this section, during the last 20 years of any term of copyright of a published work, a library or archives, including a nonprofit educational institution that functions as such, may reproduce, distribute, display, or perform in facsimile or digital form a copy or phonorecord of such work, or portions thereof, for purposes of preservation, scholarship, or research, if such library or archives has first determined, on the basis of a reasonable investigation, that none of the conditions set forth in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (2) apply. (2) No reproduction, distribution, display, or performance is authorized under this subsection if- (A) the work is subject to normal commercial exploitation; (B) a copy or phonorecord of the work can be obtained at a reasonable price; or (C) the copyright owner or its agent provides notice pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Register of Copyrights that either of the conditions set forth in subparagraphs (A) and (B) applies. (3) The exemption provided in this subsection does not apply to any subsequent uses by users other than such library or archives. Most recently updated June 22 2003 by gbn