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Originally Posted by rkomar
What is a "license fee"?
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A fee you pay in order to license the work for use. The exact amount depends on what type of work and for what use. They don't list the costs on the website but they say in most cases you'll get an estimate during the online application process.
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Is there a set percentage of the retail price that is set aside?
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I don't know. See above. A lot of the examples seem to be of individual use. e.g. putting on a play where you can't find the author, or derived works, using a photograph or a clip of audio, not re-publishing.
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This seems to be a law well-suited to big corporations, who can more easily defer the fees for eight years before claiming them.
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I'm not sure why you're talking about deferring the fees. Why would it be in the interest of the rights owner to defer? Or maybe you misread it? You don't have to wait 8 years that's just the maximum time the fees are held for. Indeed you can come forward at any which could be between the time the license was applied for and it being accepted/rejected, in which case it would automatically be rejected and the situation would default to normal.
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I would also suspect that it is easier for them to convince the administration that all efforts were made to search for the copyright holder. It seems like a law meant to placate those championing the opening up of orphaned works, while providing the "frictions" that allow the big IP companies to keep control of the market.
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Well first, it definitely isn't a trivial thing, it's meant to be a compromise between allowing access to the work and making sure the rights owners, if traceable are given a fair chance to profit from their work based on the existing copyright rules. It's not intended to be a "I couldn't find Joe Bloggs in the phone book so is it ok to copy his novel?". So yes there is some friction.
Second based on what's in the register I don't think "big IP companies" are swooping in and appyling for licenses on lots of works.