EU: OK To Digitize Copyrighted Works Without Identifiable Owners

Who is to complain?

EU ministers backed new laws to allow libraries, museums and universities—among other organisations—to digitise works that have become "orphaned" from their creators.

The Council of Minister's formal adoption of the EU's Directive on orphan works means that member states will now have to implement the laws into their own national frameworks within two years of the date still to be set upon the Directive's entry into the Official Journal of the EU. The European Parliament formally approved the terms of the Directive last month.