Orphan Works is back

On April 24, new draft versions of the Orphan Works Act of 2008 were introduced by both Houses of the U.S. Congress. The Stock Artists Alliance has published extensive commentary about Orphan Works, specifically noting the particular problems related to metadata and online distribution of images. They note that it is critical that copyright holder metadata be preserved to prevent images from becoming orphaned.

SAA offers specific recommendations for the legislation so that the needs of both image users and copyright holders are balanced. They also are conducting an extensive "MetaSurvey" of stock images, and their early findings indicate that most images being distributed in the marketplace have inadequate identifying information embedded in the image files.