Orphan Work & Copyright Provision in India

Orphan Works

A work – such as a book, a piece of music, a painting or a film – in which copyright exists, but where the copyright owner is either unknown or cannot be located is referred to as an ‘orphan work’. Orphan works can be a real problem for users who want to make use of such work, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes. For example, a filmmaker who wants to include a piece of music protected by copyright in a documentary will be unable to do so if the owner of the copyright in the music is either unknown or cannot be identified. That is, if you do not know whom to ask for permission then, unless your use of the work is covered by an existing exception to copyright, you cannot make use of the work, at least not without infringing copyright.

Comparative Summary of Select Orphan Works (Individual or Case-by-Case Use) Provisions

Country or	Type	Eligible Users	Eligible Works	Permitted Uses	Search Standard	Registry, Database,	Rights of
Jurisdiction	or Archive for Recording Orphan Works	Re-Emerging Rightsholders
India	Centrally-granted license valid for a term specified in the license.27	Any person may apply for a license.28	Any unpublished work or any work published or communicated to the public where the work is withheld from the public in India, the author is dead, unknown, or cannot be traced, or the copyright owner cannot be found.29	Publish or communicate to the public the work or a translation thereof.30	Applicant must publish proposal for use of work in one issue of a daily English-language newspaper having circulation in the major part of India. Where application is for the publication of a translation, applicant must also publish proposal in one issue of a daily newspaper in that language. Applicant must submit newspapers with license application.31	Grants of licenses are published in Official Gazette and on the website of the Copyright Office and Copyright Board, and copies of the licenses are sent to all concerned parties.32	Copyright Board determines amount of royalty to be deposited by applicant. Board may consider prevailing standards for royalties with regard to such works and other matters considered relevant. Rightsholder may claim royalty at any time.33

Source | http://copyright.gov/orphan/reports/orphan-works2015.pdf