the (c) office asks a brilliant question

Lessig's blog

As is old news (but everything on the Lessig Blog is old news),
the Copyright Office has asked for comments on whether a solution is needed
to deal with "orphan works" -- works still under copyright but whose owner
cannot be identified.

This, as PublicKnowledge notes, fantastic news. For many years, many have
been trying to refocus this debate on copyright from the binary questions
that p2p sharing seems to raise ("seems to") to the more pragmatic and
fundamental questions that this insanely inefficient and bizarrely complex
system of speech regulation called copyright raises. When Congress shifted
our system of copyright from an "opt-in" to an "opt-out" regime, it
transformed copyright from a system that automatically narrowed its
protection (and hence regulation) to those works that had some continuing
need for copyright protection, to a system that totally indiscriminately
spreads copyright to every creative work reduced to a tangible form --
automatically, and for the full term of copyright.

This issue is the focus of our challenge in Kahle v. Ashcroft. It is
something I've been whining about in every publication that will have me
(see, e.g., this op-ed in the LA Times).

But this is an issue that I've only become aware of because of the writings
and emails from many who visit this space. And it is time for you to speak
to government. No one who read the emails that I've collected could think
that this was not a problem. But the copyright office doesn't accept email
inboxes. It reads submissions only. The requirements are simple. Submission
is free. We'll be organizing as many submissions as we can at eldred.cc.
But please help spread the word: The Copyright Office needs to hear about
every example of where the existing system is stifling the cultivation and
spread of our culture. Not because Congress extends the term of copyright
for Mickey Mouse. That battle is over. But because the way in which it
protects Mickey Mouse blocks access to the balance of our copyrighted
culture - for no good copyright, or free speech, related reason. This point
is clear to many. You need to make it clear to the government.