Study on the application of the Orphan Works Directive (2012/28/EU)

The Orphan Works Directive was created to improve legal certainty across the EU for the digitisation and dissemination of a copyright-protected work for which rightsholders are impossible to identify or uncontactable. In particular, the Directive was intended to fill the gap between the public-interest mission of cultural heritage institutions to share their works with the general public and the protection of rightholders. The aim of this report is to assess and justify for possible options to improve the application and effects of the Directive. It presents factual information on the actual application of the Directive and provides an objective quantitative and qualitative assessment of the implementation of the Directive’s provisions. Chapter 2 of the report evaluates the overall effectiveness of the Directive in achieving its main objective, while Chapter 3 identifies possible recommendations to improve the implementation of the Directive, including possible amendments