What does «obra huérfana» mean in Spanish?
- Orphan works are texts or other copyrighted works whose owner cannot be identified and/or located. In the most common situation, the inability of a potential user of such a work to locate the copyright owner produces uncertainty about the use of the work, as it is even remotely possible that the copyright owner or his or her heir will surface after use has begun and bring an infringement action, giving rise to the possibility of damages against the user and distributor of the work. Where use of an orphan work is not subject to a strong fair use or fair dealing claim, use of the work is effectively stopped before it even begins. The increasingly strict copyright protection in recent decades in most countries (with a corresponding decrease in the number of works entering the public domain) is believed to have created the orphan works problem unintentionally, as in the past content creators planned only for the copyright regimes of their time, which explains why their works have been orphaned. Although the problem of orphan works is most acute in the United States, the issue is global, particularly with respect to photographs, silent films and works by creators who are not famous, regardless of the type of work.