Europees Parlement stemt voor Richtlijn Verweesde Werken

B9 11643. Photos, films or poems protected by copyright but whose right holders cannot be found could be made available to the public across the EU, under new legislation approved by Parliament on Thursday. The directive will allow anyone to access so-called orphan works, taking forward the project of making Europe's cultural heritage available online.

The text, approved by 531 votes to 11, with 65 abstentions, and informally agreed by Parliament and Council, aims to make it safer and easier for public institutions such as museums and libraries to search for and use orphan works.

Under the new rules, a work would be deemed to be "orphan" if a "diligent" search made in good faith failed to identify or locate the copyright holder. The legislation lays down criteria for carrying out such searches. Works granted orphan status would be then be made public, for non-profit purposes only, through digitisation. A work deemed to be "orphan" in any one Member State would then qualify as "orphan" throughout the EU. This would apply to any audiovisual or printed material, including a photograph or an illustration embedded in a book, published or broadcast in any EU country.

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