Studies On The System Of Using Orphan Works In Our Country

Orphan works are those works still under copyright protection but the right holder cannot be identified or located after a diligent search. There are large scales of orphan works in the word owing to automatic copyright protection, increased duration of copyright protection, advances in technology and other causes. According to international copyright principles, making a work available to the public requires prior authorization from the rightsholder. When the copyright owner cannot be identified and located, potential users face uncertain legal status, precisely, there are two alternatives:users can either use the work and risk being sued for copyright infringement or give up the use of the work in question.There are large numbers of orphan works in our country owing to our legal system, economy, technology, rights awareness of intellectual property, but there is no special legal system to adjust the use of orphan works. This is a great waste of cultural resources if there is no a appropriate legal system to make use of orphan works legal, the large-scale orphan works can only be shelved which will impede the public access, the preservation and dissemination of cultural and innovation activities. Therefore it is necessary to discuss the relevant question of the use of orphan works and try to design a rational, scientific, operational, low-cost system about the use of orphan works.The third modify of the copyright law has taken the use of orphan works in to consideration. The draft has simply provides the principle of the use of orphan works but whether the designed system is reasonable, scientific or operability is uncertain. In order to design a reasonable regime, this note will take an overview of the concept, the causes, background, then, research the successful domestic and foreign orphan works legislation systems, detail the obstacle of the use of orphan works and take comparative analysis of different regulatory solutions proposed abroad. This note will create a legal framework to facilitate the use and dissemination of orphan works which according to the licensing model, the pre-authorization process, the relief of copyright owners, exceptions of Public cultural institutions, copyright registration database and extended collective licensing.