ARL releases "Resource Packet on Orphan Works: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries"

The Association of Research Libraries has released a "Resource Packet on Orphan Works: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries." Prepared by Prudence Adler, Jonathan Band, and Brandon Butler, the resource packet provides general information on legal and policy issues concerning orphan works and the University of Michigan's Orphan Works Project, an FAQ, and a legal memorandum by Jonathan Band, policybandwidth, which describes the legal issues associated with making orphan works digitally available. While not a comprehensive response to or analysis of the lawsuit filed yesterday by three authors' groups and eight individual authors against HathiTrust and five of its partners, this packet will help readers understand some of the core issues in that suit, including the scope and applicability of fair use to orphan works