Comments filed with U.S. Copyright Office by Clinical Program Co-Director, Jeffrey Cunard

Berkman Center's Clinical Program Co-director and Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Jeffrey Cunard, last Friday filed comments concerning so-called "orphan works" with the U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of the College Art Association (CAA). Orphan works are creative works such as writings, photographs, paintings, sound recordings, and the like for which the copyright holder cannot be identified or located even with diligent efforts. The CAA comments, submitted in response to a Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry, document the wide-ranging and deep scope of  the orphan works problem and argue that "the inability to identify and find copyright owners and to clear rights to works in copyright has repeatedly stymied" critical and artistic endeavors. The comments include numerous anecdotes and case studies detailing these problems provided by representatives of the CAA's 13,000 member artists, art historians, scholars, curators, collectors, educators, arts publishers and other visual arts professionals. The CAA's comments were prepared with the assistance of Berkman clinical student Agnes Li and include the results of her research into how copyright schemes in other  countries, particularly Canada, deal with orphan works.