The photographers have a point. Their concern is that their photos will be used without permission, on a pretence of "orphan" status, and the photographers will be left to hunt for infringements at their own expense, with disabilities imposed even if they find them.
The problem, specifically, is that the bills have specified something like "party that wants to use/republish the work has to try to find out who the owner is, then if they can't find the owner they get to use it". But there is no good way to search for photos, and would-be exploiters could simply choose not to even make a good-faith effort, then the photographers would have difficulty winning lawsuits even if they found out about the infringement (the token search would be a defense for the infringer).
So the obvious solution, of course, is to simply separate out the photographs category and make a law for books, films and music recordings, where an orphan works bill is more suitable.
All these areas need much more fundamental reform, but at least an orphan works bill would be a step in the right direction.
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Separate out the problem area
The problem, specifically, is that the bills have specified something like "party that wants to use/republish the work has to try to find out who the owner is, then if they can't find the owner they get to use it". But there is no good way to search for photos, and would-be exploiters could simply choose not to even make a good-faith effort, then the photographers would have difficulty winning lawsuits even if they found out about the infringement (the token search would be a defense for the infringer).
So the obvious solution, of course, is to simply separate out the photographs category and make a law for books, films and music recordings, where an orphan works bill is more suitable.
All these areas need much more fundamental reform, but at least an orphan works bill would be a step in the right direction.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by swhx7.
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