My grandmother wrote a book that was published by Stanley Paul in 1940. It was printed just the once, and sold in very small numbers, and very few copies exist out there. She died in the late 1960s and my mother, and then I, inherited the content of her estate, and I am acting as the executor of my mum's estate since she died in 2013.
I understand Stanley Paul has been acquired several times over the years and ownership of that publishers now rests with Penguin Random House (PRH).
I have no record of any contract / licencing agreement between my grandmother and Stanley Paul from the 1940s, so I don't know whether the copyright rests with PRH or me. Would Stanley Paul and all the owners since have retained detailed records of author's contracts or licence agreements?
Book copyright from the 1940s
Re: Book copyright from the 1940s
Hi GrandDuke
I would like to think that Penguin Random House have retained the old records for all the companies they have acquired over the years, but equally I would be unsurprised to find out that they hadn't!
And even if a copy of the publishing contract survives, it might probably reveal that there was a reversionary clause in it which meant that any assignment of copyright by your grandmother would have ceased to apply at a given point, say after 50 years, or perhaps on her death.
I certainly think there is a strong presumption that you are now the owner of the copyright, which still has another 20 plus years to run.
It would be worth checking with PRH, and although it's a long shot, you could also check with the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), to see if your grandmother was registered with them. The ALCS website is down at the moment, but you can contact them at Barnard's Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London, England, EC4A 1EN or by phone on 020 7264 5700. It seems unlikely, given that so few copies of your grandmother's book were sold, that there will be any royalties due to her estate, but nonetheless there may be a slim chance that the publishing contract was registered with ALCS.
I would like to think that Penguin Random House have retained the old records for all the companies they have acquired over the years, but equally I would be unsurprised to find out that they hadn't!
And even if a copy of the publishing contract survives, it might probably reveal that there was a reversionary clause in it which meant that any assignment of copyright by your grandmother would have ceased to apply at a given point, say after 50 years, or perhaps on her death.
I certainly think there is a strong presumption that you are now the owner of the copyright, which still has another 20 plus years to run.
It would be worth checking with PRH, and although it's a long shot, you could also check with the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), to see if your grandmother was registered with them. The ALCS website is down at the moment, but you can contact them at Barnard's Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London, England, EC4A 1EN or by phone on 020 7264 5700. It seems unlikely, given that so few copies of your grandmother's book were sold, that there will be any royalties due to her estate, but nonetheless there may be a slim chance that the publishing contract was registered with ALCS.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
Re: Book copyright from the 1940s
That's very helpful Andy J - thanks
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Lumberjack
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Re: Book copyright from the 1940s
If it went to Penguin House, it is quite likely they are not interested in it any more as it was so long ago, and if you asked them, would probably say you can do what you want with it. Not all that long ago, I had a book accepted by a publisher and it quickly sold out, but they kept stalling on a reprint. I eventually contacted them and said bluntly if they were not interested in reprinting, how about letting the contract end. They were very quick to accept this, and informed me that I was free to do whatever I liked with it. Regarding old copyright in general, in most cases, as long as I ask the copyright holders if I can use it, and tell them what for, they generally give me permission to use it and rarely seem to have any interest in it anyway. The main exceptions are museums who seem to be dedicated to keeping old material out of the public domain even if copyright does not belong to them!
Al