] "Orphan Works" probably comprise the majority of the
] record of 20th century culture. These works are still
] presumably under copyright (only works published before
] 1923 are conclusively in the public domain), but the
] copyright owner cannot be found. The default response of
] archivists, libraries, film restorers, artists, scholars,
] educators, publishers, and others is to drop copyrighted
] work unless it is clearly in the public domain. As a
] result, orphan works are not used in new creative efforts
] or made available to the public due to uncertainty over
] their copyright status, even when there is no longer
] anyone claiming copyright ownership, or the owner no
] longer has any objection to such use.
]
] The Center has submitted the following two proposals to
] the Copyright Office on Access to Orphan Works and Orphan
] Films.

Linked from Groklaw. It sounds like the copyright office for
once gets it and actually wants to *do* something about it.

Orphan Works