NATIONAL MECHANISMS OF REGULATION OF CROSS-BORDER COPYRIGHT RELATIONS AIMED AT PROTECTION OF ORPHAN WORKS

Abstract

The article has investigated the mechanisms of the national (both legal and non-legal) regulation of orphan works, i.e. works the holder (holders) of rights to which is (are) not identified and/or the location of the rights-holder is not established. Orphan works are supposedly protected by copyright, which means the validity of exclusive rights and the potential need to obtain permission from the copyright holder for any form of using the works under consideration, namely: reproduction including digitization, translation, processing, etc. However, in a situation where the right holder is not determined (is unavailable), the user does not have an objective opportunity to obtain such a permission, and the work actually remains unknown to the society, although it can be of artistic, cultural or historical value. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the national legal systems of a number of States have establish a special regime for the legal protection of orphan works, and about 20 states of the world have developed the foundations of such a regime so far. The article analyzes the regulation of orphan works in several states — in the EU and its member states, Great Britain, the USA, Canada, Korea, Japan, India. The authors have determined the foundations of the substantive and conflict of laws regulation of cross-border relations regulating orphan works. Features of regulation of works with an unidentified author in the era of a network society are highlighted: in particular, the need to digitize orphan works, since many of them are in a single copy on the medium ruined by time, and the fact that the digitized work can instantly spread from databases to other jurisdictions. The authors provide for the forecast of possible ways of evolution of legal regulation of relations in question with the use of mechanisms of national and international law.