From the International Documentary Association, “Last week Congress held a hearing on Orphan Works. Orphan Works are works where you can’t find the owner of the copyright even after a substantial search. This bill would let you go ahead and use the material and pay the owner a reasonable license fee, if the owner ever shows up. That is a simple explanation of the bill. In other words, you can go ahead with your project without the fear of injunction or having to pay an exorbitant fee.

The committee heard from the Register of Copyrights, the museums, and the publishers and a technology company that has the technology to satisfy concerns of photographers and textile designers. They all favored the bill. The committee also heard from some textile and photo folks who were negative. There will be questions from members of the committee placed in the record as they had to cut the hearing short because of a vote. It is unknown what mechanism will be put in place to answer the questions. They have also invited written statements from interested communities. Prof. Jennifer Urban and Attorney Michael C. Donaldson are preparing such a statement for the film making community.

At the end of the hearing Chairman Berman spoke to Victor Pearlman, spokesman for the photographers and said “We’re going to have a bill, so deal with it.” In fact, the Senate bill is scheduled to be introduced on March 31 or April 1.

Our written comments will be included in the Congressional Record, but they are due on March 20, 2008.

Here is where you come in:
If you have ever been frustrated or blocked because you couldn’t find the owner of a work you wanted to use in or for your film, we need to hear from you. We want to enter your story in the congressional record, by attaching it to our written statement. It will be best if you could put it on some sort of letterhead, but the important thing is that we hear from you pronto. This legislation is of critical importance to all filmmakers, which is why indies and MPAA both support the legislation. You can send your stories to michael@donaldsonhart.com with a copy to jurban@law.usc.edu. They will take care of it from there.”