At collectanea, Georgia Harper, who is very defensive of the Google Book Search settlement proposal on behalf of the participating libraries, raises one of the concerns brought about through the disposition of orphan works.  Georgia addresses the fundamental conflicts of an orphan policy as embodied in the settlement proposal that is essentially driven by the unilateral reason of finance.

The original text of the settlement is in 6.3 (a):

(a) Unclaimed Funds.

(i) Unclaimed Funds-Non-Subscription Revenue Models. Any revenues paid to the Registry and due to Rightsholders of Books under Sections 4.2 (Consumer Purchases), 4.4 (Advertising Revenue Model), 4.8(a)(ii) (Printing), and, if agreed, 4.7(a) – (c) (Print on Demand, Custom Publishing and PDF Download, respectively), but that are unclaimed by such Rightsholders within five (5) years of the last date of the reporting period in which the Books earned such revenues (“Unclaimed Funds – Non-Subscription”), will be distributed by the Registry in accordance with the Plan of Allocation as soon as practicable following the end of such five (5)-year period as follows:

(1) first, to defray reasonable and necessary operational expenses of the Registry that are related to its performance, on behalf of the Rightsholders, of the functions described in Section 6.1 (Functions) and, as determined by the Board of Directors of the Registry in the exercise of its fiduciary duties, maintain reserves for such expenses on a proportional revenue basis with respect to revenue from licensees of the Registry other than Google,

(2) then, any remaining Unclaimed Funds will be paid on a proportional basis to the Registered Rightsholders until all such Rightsholders of a Book have received, in the aggregate, together with all amounts paid to such Rightsholders under Section 4.5(a) (Obligation to Pay Revenue Share), seventy percent (70%) of the Gross Revenues received by Google for such Book, and

(3) then, for any Unclaimed Funds remaining thereafter, to not-for-profit entities described in Section 510(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code chosen by the Registry after consultation with Google and, acting through the Designated Representative, the Participating Libraries and the Cooperating Libraries. The Registry shall choose not-for-profit entities described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that directly or indirectly benefit the Rightsholders and the reading public, and will include entities that advance literacy, freedom of expression, and/or education, and, for avoidance of doubt, will not include the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers or other trade organizations. “Gross Revenues” means all of the revenues received by Google from the Revenue Models identified in this Section 6.3(a) (Unclaimed Funds), and only such Revenue Models.

(ii) Unclaimed Funds-Subscription Revenue Models. Any revenues paid to the Registry and due to Rightsholders of Books under Section 4.1 (Institutional Subscriptions) and, if agreed, Section 4.7(d) (Consumer Subscription Models), but that are unclaimed by such Rightsholders within (5) years of the last date of the reporting period in which the Books earned such revenues (“Unclaimed Funds-Subscription”), will be distributed by the Registry as soon as practicable in accordance with the Plan of Allocation following the end of such five (5)-year period.

Georgia discusses the ramifications:

At first I was appalled.  Especially because the settlement terms provided that the information about who claimed what was going to be kept secret between Google and the publishers/ authors (ie, the Registry). And equally as bad, if no one came forward to claim a book, as copyright owner, essentially the Registry would keep the money. There are provisions for the Registry to use it for x, y and z, and *if* any is left, it goes to a reading-oriented charity or some such. But I'm not thinking there's going to be any left... What do you think?

Further, Google clearly understood and accepted that this plan was based on an idea I found repugnant: if orphan works don't have owners, by definition, then why is it that the Registry should keep the money that comes in for books that ultimately no one claims? The publishers and authors just don't see orphans as really belonging to everyone in the absence of an owner. They see them as belonging to all the other authors and publishers, but not the public. That really rubbed me the wrong way. After all, it's not the publishers and authors who have collected these books, maintained them, preserved them, and are now making it POSSIBLE for anyone to even have potential to find them and buy them by partnering with Google to make them a part of Book Search. Where do they get off claiming that they are entitled to keep unearned, undeserved revenues to the exclusion of everyone else in the world?

Georgia goes on to discuss her fervent desire for the settlement to be approved, and for it work in practice, but suggests that transparency in the process will be critical for its success.