- A public domain work
- A copyrighted work whose owner(s) or exclusive licensor(s) decline to license or sell their works for any price
- A copyrighted work whose owner(s) or exclusive licensor(s) offer to license or sell their work to you for a price you are unwilling to pay
- A copyrighted work whose owner(s) you are unwilling to look for
- A copyrighted work with little or no ownership information attached to it (such as a photographic negative or textile)
- A copyrighted work for which a statutory license is available (such as Section 115 of the Copyright Act, usually referred to as a compulsory mechanical license)
Orphan works are copyrighted works whose owners cannot be located.
There is currently no statutory definition in the U.S. of orphan works and proposed orphan works legislation would not create a statutory definition of the term "orphan works." The term “orphan works” is used to describe the policy issue and the legislation, but this definition would not be included in U.S. Code.