By the law of this country, laws based on Art. 1, Clause 8 of the Constitution, I and my heirs own the right to publish my writings for a given period of time. This settlement between my unappointed class representatives and Google has sold, without my permission, all my copyrights in my writings to Google when those writings go out of print and Google declares that I or my heirs cannot be found. This isn't squatter's rights--those are designed to help the person who has made an investment in a derelict piece of property gain ownership. This is akin to the National Board of Realtors declaring that they own every piece of property of which the owner cannot be found. If the problem of orphaned works is so pressing, tell Congress to shorten the term of copyrights. (Hey, passing such laws is actually something they have the power to do under the Constitution) Don't just hand people's property interest over to a private company. It's wrong in Kelo v. New Haven; it's wrong here.