Article: U.S. Orphan Works Bill Introduced

Article: U.S. Orphan Works Bill Introduced:
Gigi Sohn wrote very early today:
Late yesterday afternoon [May 22, 2006], Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chair of the House Subcommittee on Court, Internet and Intellectual Property introduced HR 5439, the Orphan Works Act of 2006. The bill, which seeks to limit liability for artists, educators and others who make a “reasonably diligent search” to find a copyright holder but cannot, is a significant improvement over the draft bill proposed by the Copyright Office in February.
Go here to read the entire post. I hope others like Larry Lessig and K.M. Dames will provide their opinions of this.
Related: Article: U.S. Orphan Works Bill Introduced
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I hope they do too. Orphan works are a significant problem for us today, but moreso for the next generation of scientists who will lose access to a ton of closed research because things will go out of print but stay in copyright. my favorite solution is that the copyright should expire 10 years after the last major print edition(1000 copy) is published. this does two things, it encourages publishers to keep publishing things or it forces them to relinquish the rights.