more on "orphan works"

For his in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary, Chris Spurgeon took two
portrait-style photos of the couple, taken in the 1940s, to a
professional photo shop in Philadelphia to be enlarged for a party.

The clerk refused to do it, telling Spurgeon that the original studio
held the copyright and that reproducing the images would be illegal.
Spurgeon had no idea where the photos had been taken or whether the
studio still existed.

"I said, `This is ridiculous,'" he recalled. "My in-laws aren't famous
people, and there was no way [the shop] would get in trouble."

But the clerk would not budge, and Spurgeon left the store with two
"orphans."

from the chicago tribune. (same stipulations as the NYT online content
- free registration required and limited archive access)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi
-0504180122apr18,1,3690661.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed