The European Commission has proposed a series of initiatives designed to increase the number of digitised works made freely available. The proposals come as the European Digital Library prepares for a November launch.
In a detailed report, Brussels said it wants reform of regulatory obstacles preventing orphan sources – where the copyright holder cannot be traced – and works in the public domain from being digitised and published online.
I don't know what kind of digitization they have in mind. At the very least, I hope it's both the "scan the page image" approach (Google Book Search) as well as the "put it in eText" approach (ala Project Gutenberg; although I'd like to see ePub used in addition to plain text -- at Gutenberg too!).
At some point out-of-paper-print has to be addressed too. It's criminal that corporate publishers can hold onto those rights, robbing writers of eBook income. Legislation is needed to retroactively cap the length of all book contracts.
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