The Orphan Works Problem

In the contemporary era، technical revolution has provided new opportunities to create and save copyrighted works in digital format more easily and faster than before. Moreover، consumer preferences have shifted from using written works to digital ones. Consequently، the orphan works have become a more problematic issue. So far، different jurisprudences have adapted different solutions to solve this problem. Generally، these solutions may be classified into two general groups. One is ex-ante or upstream solutions، which intend to preclude the problem، and the other aims to cure the problem، which are ex-post or downstream solutions. Despite the enormous researches to find the best solution to resolve the orphan work problem، there is no unanimous solution، and the efforts to find the efficient solution are still continuing. Although finding a new solution is desirable، the aim of this article is to review the present solutions to find out their drawbacks and privileges، and finally، to propose a solution combined of the approved privileges of the main solutions.