Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/11pdf/10-545.pdf
Page Number: 57.0

12 

GOLAN v. HOLDER 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

phan  books  in  the  European  Union  (13%  of  the  total
number of books in-copyright there), 225,000 orphan films in 
European  film  archives,  and  17  million  orphan  photo­
graphs  in  United  Kingdom  museums.    A.  Vuopala,  As­
sessment of the Orphan works issue and Costs for Rights 
Clearance  19,  25  (2010),  online  at  http://ec.europa.eu/
information_society/activities/digital_libraries/doc/reports_ 
orphan/anna_report.pdf  (all  Internet  materials  as  visited
Jan. 13, 2012, and available in Clerk of  Court’s case file).
How  is  a  university,  a  film  collector,  a  musician,  a  data­
base  compiler,  or  a  scholar  now  to  obtain  permission  to 
use  any  such  lesser  known  foreign  work  previously  in 
the American public domain?  Consider the questions that 
any  such  individual,  group,  or  institution  usually  must 
answer:  Is  the  work  eligible  for  restoration  under  the
statute?  If so, who now holds the copyright—the author? 
an  heir?  a  publisher?  an  association?  a  long-lost  cousin? 
Whom  must  we  contact?  What  is  the  address?  Suppose
no one answers?  How do we conduct a negotiation? 

To  find  answers  to  these,  and  similar  questions,  costs 
money.  The  cost  to  the  University  of  Michigan  and  the 
Institute of Museum and Library Services, for example, to 
determine  the  copyright  status  of  books  contained  in  the
HathiTrust  Digital  Library  that  were  published  in  the 
United  States  from  1923  to  1963  will  exceed  $1  million. 
Brief for American Library Assn. et al. as Amici Curiae 15. 
It  is  consequently  not  surprising  to  learn  that  the  Los
Angeles Public Library has been unable to make its collec­
tion  of  Mexican  folk  music  publicly  available  because  of 
problems locating copyright owners, that a Jewish cultural 
organization has abandoned similar efforts to make avail­
able  Jewish  cultural  music  and  other  materials,  or  that 
film preservers, museums, universities, scholars, database 
compilers, and others report that the administrative costs 
associated  with  trying  to  locate  foreign  copyright  owners
have  forced  them  to  curtail  their  cultural,  scholarly,  or