The user of an orphaned work can't become the owner - the legislation specifically prohibits granting users of orphaned works exclusive rights. Because of this,

The user of an orphaned work can't become the owner - the legislation specifically prohibits granting users of orphaned works exclusive rights. Because of this, sublicencing seems like a non-issue, because anyone who could sublicense an orphaned work from a user of that work, could just directly license it from whatever body licenses orphaned works.