On 24th of May 2011, the European Commission published its long
awaited Proposal for a Directive on Orphan Works. This timely
proposal is meant to find a Europe-wide solution to the issue of
orphan works. Nevertheless, rather than providing a true
solution to the question, its provisions reflect that more
debate on how to reconcile authors' rights and consumers' rights
to access in an online environment -as well as on how to
conciliate public and private interests of those involved in
digitisation initiatives- is needed before engaging in
legislative steps. The orphan works problem: slowing down
digitisation of Europe’s cultural heritage Stakeholders involved
in digitisation initiatives have claimed for some time already
the need to find solutions which enable the use of orphan works
in the online environment. Indeed, in the advent of new
technologies many institutions of public interest (libraries,
archives, museums, or educational establishments) and businesses
have engaged in the digitisation of creative c