A Study On The Orphan Works Problem Through The Comparison Of The European Orphan Work Protection

The orphan works problem is a key issue in copyright field.It has great influence on the mass digitalization project of libraries,the protection of cultural heritage and the public access to information.In recent years,there is a lot of research on this issue in China and abroad.The research and legislative practice in China are not as mature as those in western countries.The draft of the third amendment of copyright law regulates the orphan works problem in a simple approach,which has many problems.This dissertation aims to provide suggestions to the improvement of Chinese orphan works legislation through the comparison of EU,UK and Nordic orphan work scheme.This dissertation consists of five main parts.The first part firstly introduces the definition of orphan,the category of orphan works and the reasons of orphan works problem.And then it is quiet important to recognize the balance between the interests of copyright holders and orphan work users,which is the key principle when analyzing orphan work problem.There are several considerations including the balance test,the improvement of trading efficiency and the protection of cultural heritage in resolving orphan work problem.Lastly,there is a brief introduction of the orphan work regulation in EU,UK and Nordic countries.The second part to the fourth part is the three key dimensions of orphan work problem.The second part relates to the scope and limitation of orphan work use,the third part relates to the requirements of diligent search,and the fourth relates to the compensation scheme of orphan work use.The scope of orphan work use includes the types of works,the limitation on the users and the use.Diligent search have three main elements:who and where to conduct the search,which resources should he search and the registration of search results.And the compensation system means the mode and regulation of using fee.In these three parts,I would apply the balance test mentioned in the first part to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the three different orphan work legislations.And also I would discuss the regulation from the standpoint of the efficiency of exchanging information and the protection of cultural heritage.The purpose of these three parts is to learn the European orphan work systems completely in order to provide suggestion to our own orphan work system.The fifth part is the suggestion to Chinese orphan work protection.Firstly,I introduce the status quo of our legislation relating to orphan works.And then I analyze the regulation in Copyright Law Revision and discuss the problems and disadvantages.Finally,based on the comparison of three different schemes above,I provide several suggestions to Chinese orphan work protection in the aspect of legislation and administration.In the conclusion part,the main idea is that the legislation and administration of orphan work protection in China are still immature that we need to learn from the experience of western countries.According to the situation in China,in order to establish an efficient and comprehensive system,we need to make more specific regulations and improve the work of administrative organizations.This dissertation compares the EU,UK and Nordic orphan work system in three dimensions,analyzing their advantages and disadvantages according to the balance test.The creative part of this dissertation lies on three points:firstly,much foreign research is supplemented into the present research in China,especially relating to the regulation of UK and the Nordic countries;secondly,balance test is the key principle when discussing the three different systems,which becomes a clue of the dissertation;thirdly,the discussion about the third revision of Chinese Copyright Law is up to date and the suggestion consists of legislation and administration,which is more practical.