The issue of orphan works--out of print, still-in-copyright books, films, photographs, etc. whose rightsholders can't be found--is one that has been much in the news over the past few years.

Concern over a potential monopoly on orphan works was a major component of the criticism of the now-defunct Google Book Settlement, which sought to resolve authors' and publishers' objections to Google's unauthorized scanning of in-copyright books.

Orphan works also played a major part in the Authors Guild's recent lawsuit against a number of US universities, which combined digitized books--including unauthorized scans provided by Google--into a repository called HathiTrust. HathiTrust's proposed Orphan Works project, which was intended to make the full text of selected orphaned books available for faculty and student download, was put on hold after the Authors Guild demonstrated that HathiTrust's research process was flawed, and many of the books included in the project weren't orphans at all. The courts subsequently ruled against the Authors Guild on the larger issue of the Google scans, deeming them fair use--but it didn't address the question of orphan works.