Readers will probably
be familiar with the background to the Orphan Works debate, (if not
then see here,
here,
here
and here)
which arguably first entered the public arena with the Gowers Review
(pdf)
and then chugged along, via the Hargreaves Review,
the Digital Economy Bill until finally seeing some legislative
resolution in the form of Section 77 of the Enterprise and Regulatory
Reform Act 2013, and The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Licensing of Orphan Works) Regulations 2014. The
photographers' lobby group Stop43 marked this
milestone with the website headline "You
think you own your own photographs? NOT FOR LONG."
So
as we near the end of the first six months of the Orphan Works Register,
are there any signs that Stop43 were right to be concerned?
As
at today, a total of 263 works have been subject to applications for
a licence, with 220 licences having been granted. The vast majority
of applications (215) are for still images, of which 202 concern
photographs and the remainder are for paintings. The next highest
area of interest is Written Works, with 34 applications, and 19
licences granted. Fourteen sound recordings have been subject to
applications, but so far no licences have been granted in the
category. Trailing way behind in popularity are Scripts and
Choreographic works (1 application awaiting further information),
Musical notation (1 licence granted) and Moving Images (no
applications).
As
might be expected, a very high proportion of all applications is for
material connected to the First World War. The most prodigious
applicant has been the Museum of the Order of St John accounting for 175 of the
still image applications, all of which have been granted licences.
These images are photographs typically of people or scenes involving
the work of the St John Ambulance in WW1. One assumes that these were
images in the archive of the museum, which are genuine orphans, and
so, perhaps, a good example of the altruistic motives which have
energised the push for orphan works to be made available to a wider
audience. None of the other 14 applications for photographs involve
anything which could be considered modern.
Scattered
across both the written works and still image categories is a group
of applications which centre on ephemera concerning the poet Rupert Brooke. It is tempting
to surmise that once again the First World War may be a major factor
behind these applications, which were submitted by Brooke's old
university, King's College, Cambridge.
The
IPO's Orphan Work Register web page is still in beta format and so a
little clunky when trying to do searches. That said, clicking on the
title or description of a work takes you into the full registration
details for each application. This makes searching the current
database relatively manageable, but it will become less and less easy
as the overall number of applications on the register increases.
I
think it's fair to say that based on the results of the first six
months, the applications submitted so far don't exhibit evidence of
the abuses which were feared. The majority appear to be requests
based on enhancing our cultural heritage rather than outright
commercial exploitation. However as the orphan work licensing system
becomes better known, that could well change.
Look out for a follow up piece here on orphan works licensing, based on the experience of a real life applicant, in a couple of weeks time.
Look out for a follow up piece here on orphan works licensing, based on the experience of a real life applicant, in a couple of weeks time.
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