Copyright legislation impacts the activities of cultural heritage institutions whose collections often contain materials that are subject to copyright or neighbouring rights protection. While not all items in the collections of cultural heritage institutions are subject to copyright, some are, resulting in cultural heritage professionals having to put processes in place to manage these rights. This becomes particularly relevant when cultural heritage institutions undergo digitisation projects with the aim of making these materials widely available to the public and facilitate their reuse.
The orphan works Directive created a legal solution so that cultural heritage institutions from across the European Union can share out of works online without the need to ask rights holders for permission, when rights holders are unknown or cannot be located. This should facilitate rights clearance processes in cultural heritage institutions, enabling the dissemination of cultural heritage material for public interest purposes.
