The Orphan Works Problem

As described in the book, Google and HathiTrust have both made attempts at digitizing orphan works. Neither of these projects held up in court. As of 2015, there has not been another attempt made by private parties.

In 2015 Congress commissioned a study of orphan works by the Register of Copyrights, which was released in June. You can read it here. There hasn't been any U.S. legislation on orphan works, but in addition to the EU directive mentioned in the book, Canada, Japan, and South Korea all have provisions in their copyright laws allowing users to apply to their copyright offices for a license to use orphan works.