Am I reading this right?
If the owner of a “copyrighted work” cannot be located by way of any “reasonably diligent search”, anyone can then use their work in anyway they choose, under the proposed “Orphan Work Act” currently being considered in the US.
The Orphan Works Act defines an “orphan work” as any copyrighted work whose author any infringer says he is unable to locate with what the infringer himself decides has been a “reasonably diligent search.” In a radical departure from existing copyright law and business practice, the U.S. Copyright Office has proposed that Congress grant such infringers freedom to ignore the rights of the author and use the work for any purpose, including commercial usage. In the case of visual art, the word “author” means “artist.”
Too bad if your name doesn’t show up on the first page the Google search results then?
