Directive 2012/28/EU on certain permitted uses of orphan works, on which the Council gave an opinion on 28 March 2012, was adopted on 25 October 2012. The Directive had to be transposed into Belgian law by 29 October 2014. At the time, the Council no longer had appointed members. That is why the members appointed in 2009 of the Copyright and Related Rights Section were invited to attend meetings on 16 December 2014 and on 3 February 2015. They were asked to draw up an opinion on a working document regarding the transposition of this Directive, which was done in the form of a Draft Bill and an explanatory memorandum.
In view of the topic of this opinion, the representatives of the Communities, the Royal Library and the Royal Belgian Film Archive were invited.
The Council gave an opinion on the content of some of the concepts used in the Directive and the concepts to be used in the Belgian law (costs, rightholder, organisations/institutions and organisations, orphaned work, other protected material/performance). Several points of view were expressed within the Council as to whether a work needs to be lawfully made available in order to be covered by the exception for orphaned works. Furthermore, several changes were suggested in the draft explanatory memorandum in the form of a working document.
Naturally, drawing up a list of appropriate sources to carry out a thorough examination was already discussed during these meetings, even though this task will be delegated to the King and, as such, this discussion will be continued upon drafting the Royal Decree to that effect.
In addition, several questions were asked within the Council about the sanctions.
Finally, the Council shared questions and tips on the database of orphaned works, managed by the OHIM.
