Who owns the copyright? A handful of good places to begin
If you’re using images, text extracts or pretty much anything else, you’ll need to know who controls the rights. Even if the name of the author (or artist, or photographer, etc, etc) is pretty clear, that doesn’t necessarily mean you know who to turn to. Can you reuse the material? Who will be able to tell you? And what terms or costs might they impose?
I’ve gathered together a few ideas of places you can look online, to help with this first stage of your research.
It’s very, very far from exhaustive. A recent academic study found that cultural institutions wanting to check whether a work is a considered an “orphan” (i.e. without a known copyright holder) across a range of EU countries, will have to answer as many as 569 separate rights research questions. This can be a complex field if you try to be really thorough!
In the spirit of starting with something a little less draining than that, here are a few starting points for various types of content:
- Writers, Artists and Their Copyright Holders (WATCH) – The WATCH File from the Universities of Texas and Reading is a useful first stop. It’s often the first place I’d try.
- DACS – The Design and Artists Copyright Society represents visual artists if you are starting from the UK (though the artists themselves are worldwide). Search here to see if the artist you’re looking for is listed. (Remember you might need 2 separate licences if you’re using a photo of a work of art: one for the work itself if it’s still within copyright (could be from DACS), and another for the photo.
- Poetry – Clearing permissions for poetry can be tricky. A handy feature of Faber’s online permissions tool is that, as well as allowing you to request permission for the poems they publish themselves, you’ll sometimes also find information about who else holds rights, if it isn’t with Faber. Worth searching here to see what comes up.
- PLS Clear can help with extracts from books or serials, as long as the relevant publisher has signed up with their service.
- Writers and Artists Yearbook – A UK-focussed list of literary agencies, book and audio publishers, magazines, newspapers, and more. I used to tell people that every UK public library would have a copy of the latest print edition (published annually), but in these straitened times I’m not certain if that’s still true. Either way, you might prefer to subscribe online
- Firms Out of Business (FOB) – Publishing companies, literary agencies etc from the past. Often in rights research you’ll find out who used to represent a particular author, and that’s frustrating if you’re not sure where to go next. FOB is associated with WATCH, and helps when you want to know who bought a particular list or imprint.
- International Literary Marketplace – International lists of publishers and literary agencies . The enormous printed volume of ILMP is expensive, and so is the full online service, but fortunately it’s possible to subscribe for as little as a week at a time. Plan your research in bulk, if you can!