No orphan works legislation is currently pending before Congress, although there have been three prior versions, one of which passed the U.S. Senate in 2008. New orphan works legislation will need to be introduced in the 111th Congress for it to be reconsidered in the future. The same version of S. 2913 and H.R. 5889 from 2008 or H.R. 5439 from 2006 could be reintroduced with no changes or with a few / some / numerous changes. Any interested Member of Congress could reintroduce orphan works legislation, although the tradition is that the same Member(s) of Congress who introduced similar legislation in the prior Congress do so again.

The two most recent versions of orphan works legislation were:
Both versions of the legislation sought to address the same copyright policy issue - orphan works. Some components of both pieces of legislation were identical, while other components varied significantly.

During the 109th Congress (2005-2006), there was one piece of legislation addressing orphan works - H.R. 5439. This version of the legislation that I was responsible for while I was a Congressional staffer on the House Intellectual Property Subcommittee is similar, but not identical, to the later House and Senate versions. The 2008 House and Senate versions were longer due to the inclusion of additional provisions that were not part of the original H.R. 5439.

The 2008 Senate version of orphan works legislation, S. 2913, was named for Shawn Bentley, a former intellectual property counsel for Senator Hatch who was one of the sponsors of the Senate legislation. I and many others in Washington were proud to call Shawn a friend. Shawn’s knowledge, personality, and leadership are missed by many. H.R. 5889 is not named for anyone.

Use the links above to learn more about the legislation and Shawn Bentley.