"In the case of many books and photographs, the rights holders are unknown; in other cases, it’s expensive to track down the heirs or the legatees or the firms,

"In the case of many books and photographs, the rights holders are unknown; in other cases, it’s expensive to track down the heirs or the legatees or the firms, possibly no longer in existence, to whom the copyright belongs." There's people who take advantage of this. I've seen more than a few people claiming they own the copyright, while when asked to provide proof they never respond. Ebay is loaded with people who are falsely claiming copyright protection. Ebay seems to take the stand, "Well this dude was the first one to scan it to PDF, he must own the copyright?"