Orphan Works and the Digital Copyright Exchange - Open Enterprise

"What I find particularly interesting about orphan works is that they are perhaps the perfect demonstration that the current copyright licensing scheme is not "fit for purpose for the digital age": after all, these are works that nobody can access because it's not possible to find out from whom - if anyone - licenses should be sought. It is therefore impossible to produce digital versions of them legally. A corollary of this situation is that liberating orphan works from this copyright limbo is the easiest way to boost the digital market without needing to fight vested interests, since by definition there aren't any for works whose owners cannot be located...."