U.K.’s first attempt at an orphan-works legislation has failed. Clause 43 was removed from the Digital Economy Bill by the House of Commons. The first U.S. legislation attempting to deal with the issue of orphan works suffered a similar fate: despite support from the academic and cultural communities, the bill’s language failed to meet the needs of creative businesses and was stalled.
Numerous creative organizations warn that despite this progress, eventual passing of some form of legislation is inevitable. In the U.K., stop43.org.uk is urging continued advocacy—particularly a change of emphasis: “Orphan works are wrongly named, because they are not ‘orphan’ at all. They remain our property.” In the U.S., six trade groups have partnered to amass negotiating power to deal with such legislative issues as Google’s use of images in printed books and orphan-works laws.