Breza Šalamon-Cindori and Renata Petrušić from the National and University Library in Zagreb address a special issue relating to copyrighted works of which the authors, i.e. copyright holders, may not be identified or located. Orphan works, as this substantial collection of works held by libraries and other institutions is called, represent one of the biggest obstacles to a comprehensive approach to culture, art and knowledge since, due to a possible copyright infringement, they get left out of digitization projects. The authoresses draw attention to the fact that unless this issue is settled the exclusion of these works from digitization projects will create a “black hole” in the access to knowledge in the digital environment.