The courts have not been very sympathetic when it comes to allowing out of print books and films to be archived and essentially preserved forever. Their is serious contention surrounding the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Berne Convention Implementation Act.
If the courts fail to realize the absurdity of the near limitless extension of out of print books and films it may be very well that significant numbers of these works will never again see the light of day. [Wired]