The European Proposal for a Directive on Orphan Works: a partial attempt to speed-up digitisation of European cultural heritage

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.