orphan works

[ejp626]

I know we've kicked this around on some of the copyright threads, but this has come up in a more tangible way for me. I am pulling together a poetry anthology and would like to include a poem from a completely obscure anthology called Local, published in 1977 by a small outfit in Brooklyn called Zonepress. They certainly seem defunct (nothing out since about 1979). I've done some preliminary searches for the editor (Jay Heller) and the author of the piece and keep coming up blank. If I were Google (or if I were doing a blog-based anthology), I'd probably just throw it up there until someone told me to take it down. That doesn't seem to fly in the print-based world. I suspect I will put it in there with a note to the publishing house that if the rights just become impossible to secure, then it will have to be pulled.

Are there actual solutions to these problems of orphan works where the rights holders simply cannot be traced? My impression is that under US law, the answer is no. Which I think is crazy, by the way. Anyway thoughts or suggestions welcome.

[Pete C]

I know we've kicked this around on some of the copyright threads, but this has come up in a more tangible way for me. I am pulling together a poetry anthology and would like to include a poem from a completely obscure anthology called Local, published in 1977 by a small outfit in Brooklyn called Zonepress. They certainly seem defunct (nothing out since about 1979). I've done some preliminary searches for the editor (Jay Heller) and the author of the piece and keep coming up blank. If I were Google (or if I were doing a blog-based anthology), I'd probably just throw it up there until someone told me to take it down. That doesn't seem to fly in the print-based world. I suspect I will put it in there with a note to the publishing house that if the rights just become impossible to secure, then it will have to be pulled.

Are there actual solutions to these problems of orphan works where the rights holders simply cannot be traced? My impression is that under US law, the answer is no. Which I think is crazy, by the way. Anyway thoughts or suggestions welcome.

This is an amazing coincidence. I was one of the publishers of Zonepress and Zone Magazine. Which piece is it? Ultimately, it would be the writer, not the press you'd need permission from, as we would have only had first serial rights. If you can let me know which writer I can see if I have any info that can help you track him/her down.

I do believe that you are correct in your last assumption--no permission, no go, failure to find copyright holder wouldn't protect you from future action.

I wrote the first piece in that anthology, by the way.

You may be right about 1979ish being the end of the small press side of Zone. Zone Magazine went a few more years, albeit irregularly. The journal moved from Brooklyn to the East Village with me in 1979.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Pete C

[paul secor]

The connections that come up on this board are nothing short of amazing.

[ejp626]

The connections that come up on this board are nothing short of amazing.

That's pretty cool. Anyway, absolutely true. That was why I thought I would take a flyer here.

I'll get Pete the details over the weekend. There were a few from Local that I thought were quite good, but only one that I was going to go out of my way to track down. Maybe if I thought there was a chance for a couple of the others, I'd see about including them as well.

I still wish there was a better way to deal with these works (and I really wish the copyright hadn't been extended on orphan works), but that's a different discussion for another day.