[pp.int.general] Fwd: [A2k] EU signs MoU on Key Principles on the Digitisation and Making Available of Out-of-Commerce Works

[Amelia Andersdotter]

moving forward :-)

The COMMUNIA projects looks to be achieving some of its targets.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[A2k] EU signs MoU on Key Principles on the Digitisation and 
Making Available of Out-of-Commerce Works
Date: 	Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:53:45 +0530
From: 	Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>
Organization: 	Centre for Internet and Society
To: 	Commons Law <commons-law at sarai.net>, A2K List 
<a2k at lists.keionline.org>



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Dear all,
I believe this is a very interesting and important development in the
EU.  They've taken a non-legislative approach to something even broader
than the orphan-works problem: the out-of-commerce book digitisation
problem.

The FAQ on this:
http://goo.gl/L30Ew

- From the FAQ:
## 4. What are the main elements of the MoU?
It is sector specific, providing solutions for books and learned journals.
It is based on voluntary licensing agreements to be negotiated in the
country of first publication of the works.
The determination of the out-of-commerce status will be decided in the
country of first publication according to criteria defined by the parties.
The types of use of the works will be agreed by the parties in each
licensing agreement.
It foresees the need for solutions to situations of collective
management when not all right holders are represented by a collecting
society.

## 5. Why a MoU? Why is the Commission not proposing a legislative
initiative?
Copyright holders, whether authors or publishers, are the ones who can
decide whether or not to permit libraries or other cultural institutions
to digitise out-of-commerce works contained in their collections and put
them online as part of a digital library project. Through voluntary
agreements interested parties can negotiate mutually acceptable terms
and conditions for the online exploitation of out-of-commerce works.
This is preferable to legislation that could be too prescriptive and
lack the flexibility to provide solutions adapted to the needs of
particular users and the specificities of particular sectors while fully
respecting copyright.

The Key Principles contained in the MoU signed today contain the
necessary elements to ensure sufficient flexibility enabling authors and
publishers to mandate collective management organisations to grant
national and multi-territorial licences to those libraries and other
publicly accessible cultural institutions wanting to digitise and make
available out-of-commerce books and learned journals in their
collections. In turn, the MoU recognises that legislative backing for
these licensing solutions voluntarily developed by stakeholders may be
needed in some Member States in order to cover situations where licences
include right holders that are not members of a collective management
organization.

## 6. How do out-of-commerce works differ from orphan works?
There is one fundamental difference between them: orphan works are works
where the copyright owners are not known or cannot be found so it is not
possible to get the necessary authorisations to use their works. By
contrast, the right holders of out-of-commerce works are generally known
so a user such as a library will know whom to contact to get the
necessary permissions to use the works. Whereas for the use of orphan
works, the key element is the determination of the "orphan works"
status, for the use of "out-of-commerce" works, the key element is how
to facilitate their licensing (without having to determine whether
within a collection of out-of-commerce works there are some that may, or
may not, be orphans).

## 9. Who are the signatories to the MoU?
The MoU was signed by the European Writers? Council (EWC), the
Federation of European Publishers (FEP), the European Publishers'
Council (EPC), the International Association of Scientific, Technical
and Medical Publishers (STM), the European Bureau of Library,
Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), the Conference of
European National Librarians (CENL), the Association of European
Research Libraries (LIBER), European Visual Artists (EVA), the European
Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of
Reprographic Rights Organisations (IFRRO).

- -- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283


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