If you have read the Knowledge Base article here, then you will know that the principle behind the Orphan Works is that of opening up creative pieces where the creator is not contactable or has died and has no living recipient of the artworks copyright status, such as an estate, etc. However, the new bills planned by the American Government have opened the doors to a much more sinister attribution to these laws. What the small print of the law has enabled is a loop hole in the way the law will be administered.

The plan is to make it necessary for individual creatives to register each and every piece of creative work they have done; whether sketch, final, doodle, transitional, etc. These would all be registered separate entities, that will all have to be paid for (for registration) individually. They will need to be registered at private Orphan Works/Copyright offices, that will do the bureaucratic cataloging. This will also mean artistic works outside of the United States. Why? Because the internet is a global arena that will allow anyone in the States to find a piece of creative works they like. If they do an ‘diligent’ search for the owner of the works, and come up with nothing. This could mean, for example, a single pass soon a Google search. If the copyright owner cannot be discovered from that search, the law allows the person to freely use the work. Unless, it is discovered to be restored at one of these offices.

So, in effect the Orphan Works bill is designs to open up works like Public Domain, but to low income creatives it becomes a nightmare that will see their copyright fade to nothing, and that everything online will be theoretically free to use by anyone. More information can be found here!