Out of Commerce Works


The Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) Directive created a legal possibility for cultural heritage institutions to share out of commerce (OOC) works online when permission is difficult to obtain from rightsholders.

The aim of legal possibility is to solve the problem of the 20th-century blackhole – the very low number of 20th-century material available because of the difficulty to clear rights to publish these works online.

The flowchart below help navigates some of the decisions that CHIs need to make when working with OOC works.

More information

More information about OOC works can be found on the Europeana FAQ on Out Of Commerce Works.