Orphan Works and Diligent Search Procedures in Europe

Abstract

In the context of Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on certain uses of orphan works, a prospecting study is presented on the current status of the declaration of orphan works in Europe, focusing on aspects directly related to the "Library and Information Science" domain. The work is within the framework of a competitive research and development project financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain, on the digitisation of documentary heritage to develop methodological proposals to facilitate access to and the use of orphan works. The study has focused on finding and analysing good practices related to diligent search procedures which have to be carried out before a work can be declared orphan in the countries of the European Union in which Directive 2012/28/EU has been implemented. From the methodological point of view, the results of the study are based on the collection and analysis of information grouped in the following blocks: current state of implementation of Directive 2012/28/EU, analysis of the different beneficiaries and competent authorities in each country, procedures related to processes for the declaration of orphan works, location of national sources of information for diligent search, detection of the existence of national databases for the registration of orphan works and their relation to the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) database.