Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Google's fighting to not have to do opt-in. They don't want to have to contact every author & publisher of the thousands, maybe millions, of out-of-print works they've scanned.
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...they'll need to turn their attentions to changing copyright law. Which I'm much in favor of; I'd love Google to start pushing for a coherent & useful orphan works policy, and establish standards for what counts as a reasonable search for copyright owners. Google has the resources to make that possible; I'd love to see them work *with* the EFF to get us better copyright laws and enforcement policies.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Copyright law reform needs an advocate like Google to go to Congress (or hell, the UN) and say, "look at all the shiny new toys and commerce and research and education and communication you *could* be having... if our hands weren't tied by this law that's not benefiting anybody but corporate lawyers." (I don't mean "copyright law;" I mean the aspects of it that deal with orphan works; I mean the lack of coherent rules about fair use; I mean the broken DCMA that doesn't allow for easy prosecution of false claims.)
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I whole heartedly agree with Elfwreck. If anyone can get Congress to update the copyright laws it is Google.
My only fear is that it might be too late. If Google gets Congress to change laws allowing them (or anyone) to publish orphaned works then there will be screaming. The claim will be be that big evil Google is buying off Congress and getting Congress to give them the rights to millions of author's works. It won't matter if Congress is giving "everyone" access to orphaned works while insuring authors are still compensated. The narrative will be that Google is buying Congress and getting them to do what Google couldn't get done through the courts.