Can Anyone Identify This Engine?

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This is an interesting discussion on copyright issues. Years ago, I bough a set of plans for the Otto-Langen engine, from Emmet Lenaz out of Louisiana, who produced the plans I think. I've had several folks ask for a copy as the plans no longer seem to be available and my attempts to locate Emmet were fruitless. It seems a shame to let the plans get lost to history, but I'm not comfortable violating the implied copyright.

If one cannot find the current copyright holder at what point (if ever) does it become acceptable to make copies of the plans available to others?
 
Current copyright law says it belongs to the original copyright holder for life plus 70 years. It seems to me this is more relevant to copyright on a motion picture script or musical score or something like that, and probably comes from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act but that's what it is.

It's controversial. There are people opposed to copyrights and patents in general, which as a holder of both a patent and a few copyrights, I disagree with. They say if nobody is using it, things should revert to public domain after some time. That makes sense to me, but it sure isn't my call.
 

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