How Fair Use Can Help Solve the Orphan Works Problem

Abstract

Many works that libraries, archives, and historical societies would like to digitize are “orphan works,” that is, works for which the copyright holder either is unknown or cannot be located after a diligent search. Due to copyright risk if an owner later shows up, nonprofit libraries and similar institutions have been reluctant to digitize and make these works available, greatly limiting access to important cultural and historical information. While a legislative fix may soon be proposed, this Article argues that legislation is not necessary to enable some uses of orphan works by nonprofit libraries and archives. Instead, U.S. copyright law’s fair use doctrine, which allows certain unpermissioned uses of copyrighted works, provides a partial solution. Though it is an incomplete solution, fair use has some significant advantages over other approaches through which libraries and archives could make publicly beneficial uses of orphan works. Under fair use, there is no need to develop a licensing system, significantly reducing administrative and transactional costs, and eliminating socially wasteful license fees for works that are not on the market, and for which an owner is unlikely to exist. Second, fair use has the flexibility to accommodate change over time as libraries and archives discover the best ways to search for owners, preserve works, and make them available. Finally, allowing fair use of orphans by libraries and archives helps fulfill copyright’s critical purposes of promoting the dissemination of knowledge and supporting speech and free expression. © 2012 Jennifer M. Urban. † Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law. The author gratefully acknowledges the many thoughtful ideas and helpful comments of Ty Alper, Roxanna Altholz, Michelle Anderson, Michael Donaldson, James Grimmelmann, David Hansen, Edward Lee, Mark Lemley, Saira Mohammed, Pamela Samuelson, Jason Schultz, Christopher Sprigman, and Karen Tani, participants in the Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles & Opportunities conference [hereinafter Berkeley Orphan Works Conference], and participants in the 12th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference. This Article is output of the Berkeley Digital Library Copyright Project, generously supported by funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. More information about the Berkeley Digital Library Project can be found at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/12040.htm. I especially thank Ana Enriquez for excellent research assistance. The thoughts contained in this Article represent my individual academic conclusions and opinions, and should not be attributed to any client I represent or the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, which I direct. In addition, the University of California, where I am a faculty member, is a defendant in the Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust suit; however, I do not represent, and in no way speak for, the University of California or any other party in the case. 1379-1430_URBAN_031013_FINAL (DO NOT DELETE) 3/10/2013 10:36 PM 1380 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 27:1379