My Orphan Work Comment in the SF Guardian

My comment submitted to the LOC's Orphan Works RFC was mentioned in an SF Guardian article by Matthew Hirsch: "Commons cause: Techies are forging some strange alliances to enlarge the public domain". Here's the relevant excerpt:

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Then there's Joseph Hall, a graduate student at UC Berkeley who wants to upload a rare book on voting technology to the Internet for public use. The book was originally published in 1942, and Hall believes the publisher has since gone out of business. "If this work is public domain, it would be a great resource if it was online in a searchable form. I have the ability to do this, but I'm uncertain whether or not the work is public domain or if the current rights holder would authorize such a use," he wrote on the Copyright Office's Web site.

Hall's problem is echoed by Bookshare.org, a nonprofit that uses the Internet to bring books to people with disabilities. Bookshare.org is looking for a cheaper and easier way to track down copyright holders for books that are old and out of print.