Legal problems of the use of orphan works in digital age

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to consider the mechanisms of legalization of use orphan works, based on a comparative analysis of the legal regulation in the United States, the EU and European countries; identify priority ways to reform and to develop proposals for improving copyright law in Ukraine. In the first section the concept of the orphan works and the circumstances which caused emergence of the orphan works are revealed. It has been established that the problem of orphan works mostly concerns works whose authors died and heirs cannot be found. In the second section the models of legalization of orphan works in the United States, Canada, the EU and European countries are analyzed and these interferences formed a proposal for Ukrainian legislation. In the third section the background of development of legislation of orphan works in Ukraine are studied. The neсessity to study the legal regulation of the United States, the EU and European countries in light of the recodification of the Civil law of Ukraine and seeking way of its renovation is substantiated. Developing effective mechanisms of using orphan works are stated to become relevant in the process of digitization of libraries’ collections and to have gained a new momentum in recent years. Its result has been provided open access to the works on the Internet.