Orphan works in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Further information: United States copyright law
An orphan work is a work whose copyright owner is impossible to identify or contact.[1] This inability to request permission from the copyright owner often means orphan works cannot be used in new works nor digitized, except when fair use exceptions apply. Until recently, public libraries could not digitize orphaned books without risking being fined up to $150,000 if the owner of the copyright were to come forward.[2] This problem was briefly addressed in the 2011 case Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, but the settlement in that case was later overturned.