Orphan works and copyright

Ars Technica has a great story about an “orphaned works” law which recently cleared the Senate’s Judiciary committee.   They don’t give details on the law, but it’s presence is a promising sign.   Orphaned works is a term refferring to copyrighted works where people are unable to discover the owner of the copyright.  Ars gives the example of wedding photos, though there are examples of orphaned works which span across multiple mediums.   A link to the story can be found here or from the news desk of http://arstechnica.com/