The Orphan Works Directive, adopted in 2012, set out to foster digitisation and unlock Europe’s cultural heritage for education, research and other cultural purposes, but how does it work in practice?

The conference « Digitisation of heritage and orphan works » was a joint event of the Royal Library of Belgium and the FORWARD project, coordinated by CINEMATEK. It aims at presenting new tools to identify Orphan Works as well as digitisation projects carried out at national and European level.

During the morning session, the Commission’s Media Policy Directorate introduced into the scope of the Directive. Nicola Mazzanti (President of the Association of European Cinematheques) gave an insight into the challenges and prospects of the OWD for audiovisual works, while N. Lenaerts (Federal Public Service Economy) spoke about its transposition into Belgian law. Orphan works uses cases and new tools for printed as well as audiovisual material were presented by the Royal Library and the FORWARD project. The Commission’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) presented the EU Online Database for Orphan Works.

In the afternoon, a more hands-on workshop demonstrated how the FORWARD system supports the assessment of the copyright status and the diligent search for audiovisual works. It’s the first public presentation of the FORWARD system, which will be finally released in January 2017.

You can access the conference programme here

Venue: Royal Library of Belgium, Mont des Arts, 1000 Brussels (Royal Sky Room, 6th floor)
Date: 30th of November 2016, 9.30 – 16.30h