Orphan work
Orphan works are copyright-protected works for which the rightsholders are positively indeterminate or uncontactable. Since registration is optional in the United States, the number of orphan works has increased dramatically since 1989, and many works’ statuses remain unknown.
Extent
Abandoned software, such as photographs without a credit to the photographer, is known as abandonware. In 2015, the Computerspielemuseum Berlin estimated that around 50% of their video game collection was orphaned in some way.
Impact
Orphan works are not available for legal use by filmmakers, archivists, writers, musicians, or broadcasters; historical and cultural records such as period film footage cannot be incorporated into contemporary works in countries where there is no orphan works law because rightsholders cannot be identified and located.
Causes
Only a small percentage of old copyrighted works are made available to the public, according to Netanel, because rightsholders have “no incentive” to keep a work in circulation.
Canada
The Copyright Board of Canada can issue licenses for the use of published works on behalf of unlocatable rightsholders; as of March 2019, the Board had issued 304 such licenses, denied 24 applications, and rejected 304 licensing applications.
European Union
Orphan works were created in the EU as printed works (books, journals, magazines, and newspapers) as well as cinematographic and audio-visual works. The European Union adopted Directive 2012/28/EU on Orphan Works in October 2012, which critics say is overly institutionalized, statist, and inflexible.
United Kingdom
The Intellectual Property Office launched an online licensing scheme for orphan works on October 29, 2014, which differs from the EU directive (which no longer applies in the UK) in several ways, such as allowing anyone to submit works rather than just cultural institutions.
See also
The film Orphan Black, the TV series Orphan Blue, the musical Orphan Beatlemania, and a variety of other works by children’s author Agnes Birkhampf-Bergmann can all be found on Wikimedia Commons.
References
No orphan works exception in the UK, online before 1 January 2021 – see www.gov.uk/guidance/orphan-works-and-cultural-heritage-institutions. European Commission: Report on Digital Preservation, Orphan Works, and Out-of-Print Works for 2007-08-09 – 2013-04-20.
Why are orphans used in literature?
Writers can better contrast the characters’ lonely beginnings to their happy endings by using orphans as protagonists; the love these characters have for their new families is only highlighted by the lack of love in their previous lives.
How many orphan works are there?
While no studies have been conducted in the United States to determine the number of orphan works currently in existence, it is estimated that up to half of the works in the Hathitrust Digital Library, or over 10 million works, are orphan works.
How does an orphan work?
Orphan works are copyrighted creative works or performances for which one or more of the right holders is either unknown or cannot be located, such as a diary, photograph, film, or piece of music.
Can I use an orphan work?
An orphan work is a copyrighted work whose owner is impossible to locate or contact; because of this inability to obtain permission from the copyright owner, orphan works are frequently prohibited from being used in new works or digitized, unless fair use exceptions apply.
Why are all protagonists orphans?
Making your heroes orphans accomplishes the following goals: 3) Makes it easier for the writers to gain sympathy for the characters because few people sympathize or empathize with orphans; 4) Provides the character with a ‘driving force’ at the core of their existence that may not exist in someone from an ‘intact family.’
Where do orphans live?
An orphanage is a residential institution, also known as a group home, that is dedicated to the care of orphans and other children who have been separated from their biological families.
What do you call a child whose parents are dead?
An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them; in common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is referred to as an orphan.
Is public domain free?
You are free to copy and use individual images in the public domain, but copying and distributing the entire collection may infringe on what is known as the “collective works” copyright.
What happens when you orphan a work on AO3?
The ability to orphan a fanwork is a feature provided by Archive of Our Own that allows a writer to permanently disassociate their name or pseud from a work hosted on the site with just a few clicks; the work will no longer link to the author’s AO3 account, and the author will no longer be able to modify it in any way.
What country has most orphans?
The regions with the largest orphan populations are Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East; a large portion of the world’s orphan population lives in underdeveloped or developing countries; only India has 31 million orphans.
What do orphans do when they turn 18?
For most foster kids, the day they turn 18, they’re suddenly on their own, responsible for finding a place to live, managing their money, shopping, clothing, food, and trying to continue their education, all while most of their peers are still in school.
What is a widow in typesetting?
Widow: A widow occurs when the last line of a paragraph does not fit at the bottom of a page or column, but instead sits at the top of the next page, looking out of place. Orphan: An orphan occurs when the first line of a paragraph sits at the bottom of a page by itself, looking out of place.
What is orphan in art?
The US Library of Congress defines “orphan works” as “copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or impossible to locate.” Copyrighted works can become “orphaned” when the author cannot be identified or found.
Are orphan works public domain?
“Orphan Works” are works that are presumably still under copyright (only works published before 1923 are conclusively in the public domain), but the copyright owner cannot be found.