This whole orphaned works 'need to be published' myth is just away to try and get the small publisher/individual to have to pay someone for their currently preserved rights.
The Murdochs of this world will be more than happy to publish rare books and pay the copyright owner the same for a Lindisfarne Bible as they would for some Dan Brown keyboard diarrhoea -after a reasonable search. This bill, like Googles land grab, may look good at first glance but is really the most pernicious legalised theft since the enclosures act.

All that scaremongering just makes you sound like you have an axe to grind. Wild exaggeration doesnt strengthen your case, it actually undermines it.

The Act explicitly states that a work is only considered "orphaned" if reasonable efforts fail to reveal the owner. I appreciate that it is difficult to imagine anyone being reasonable these days, but nevertheless.

It is *highly* unlikely that using works of unknown provenance without even the most cursory effort to track down the owner would be considered "reasonable".

If somebody has told you otherwise, it may be that *they* have an axe to grind. Mayhap it would be interesting to examine their motives.

Not implyin nothin, just sayin.

Typical liberal democrats, lets hope no one votes for a party that takes back handers from the film and music industry. Sony is big enough to look after themselves without laws being invented for them.

There's other aspects of the DEB I'd love to see you investigate - namely the Ophan Works part of DEB.

An Orphan Work is essentially a photograph where the original photographer can't be identified.

If a publisher can't find who created a photograph though a "reasonable search" (reasonable is undefined) then they can simply pay a central body a small fee for the rights to use the work.

The gov gets a cut - lord knows why, greed I expect - some goes to the central body while the rest is held in case the 'tog ever comes looking.

Naturally the amounts are a pittance compared to what a 'tog could reasonably expect.

With photography it's VERY easy to create Orphaned Works. Strip out the EXIF and remove the watermark. Job done. Takes about 30 seconds. Strangely the government isn't making this a crime - sure the dude who Orphaned the photograph is committing copyright infringement but the final publisher won't have to bat an eye!

This bill was been lobbied by Rupert "Arsehole" Murdoch and cronies although I guess it's a boon for other papers too - I wonder if that's why we hardly hear anything about it.