What happens to copyright after death?

[quincy]

I don't know.

I'm thinking it was self printed. On the first inside page of the cookbook, it reads:

Copyright 1986
(My grandmother's name)
(My grandmother's address)
Printed in the United States of America

The only other pages in the book that are not recipes, stories, or artwork, are order forms in the back of the book, and grandma's address is on those, so if someone sent an order form, it would have gone to her, and she would have shipped the book to the buyer. There is also an acknowledgements page, thanking a couple of her friends and a couple of family members for their help and encouragement.

Thank you for the additional information, HotelGM.

The holder or holders of the copyrights still need to be identified to ensure no rights are infringed. Once the copyright owner(s) are identified, and written permission is granted by the copyright owner(s) to publish more copies of the cookbook, registering the cookbook copyright (if it has not been registered already) would be a good idea. To check to see if the cookbook was previously registered by your grandmother, a link to copyright searches was provided in an earlier post.

And here is a link to registering a copyright: https://www.copyright.gov/registration/

As for the rest, zzdoodah and LdiJ essentially asked questions that were answered by you previously or repeated information provided to you earlier. What was not yet addressed, however, is what to do with the proceeds from any cookbook sales if family members want to once again offer the cookbook for sale in “tourist type” stores or wherever.

The reason to address these issues before publication is to prevent problems with family members in the future, no matter how remote these problems might seem right now.

Good luck.

 

[1935]

The question remaining is, assuming the copyright is unregistered, does a transfer of it have to go through probate, or is a written assignment from the heirs sufficient?

Say for example, all of the heirs agreed that one grandchild should publish the book and register the copyright and he/she could keep all proceeds from any sales, because everyone is just happy that Grandma's cookbook gets famous---can the heirs simply sign over any rights in the copyright to the grandchild, or does probate need to be involved in order to allow the grandchild to register the copyright in his own name (or the name of a company or trust that he creates for managing the book publishing)?

 

[quincy]

The question remaining is, assuming the copyright is unregistered, does a transfer of it have to go through probate, or is a written assignment from the heirs sufficient?

Say for example, all of the heirs agreed that one grandchild should publish the book and register the copyright and he/she could keep all proceeds from any sales, because everyone is just happy that Grandma's cookbook gets famous---can the heirs simply sign over any rights in the copyright to the grandchild, or does probate need to be involved in order to allow the grandchild to register the copyright in his own name (or the name of a company or trust that he creates for managing the book publishing)?

A transfer of rights in a copyright can be bequeathed by will or passed along as personal property under applicable state laws. The heir(s) can record the copyright transfer with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Office of Public Records and Repositories, although recordation is not required.

 

[1935]

A transfer of rights in a copyright can be bequeathed by will or passed along as personal property under applicable state laws. The heir(s) can record the copyright transfer with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Office of Public Records and Repositories, although recordation is not required.

Thanks Quincy. But Grandma is deceased, so who handles the transfer now? Is it simply a matter of the heirs signing over rights that they automatically received (either through a will or through intestate succession laws) and that's it, or must a probate court be involved? I assume probate would be required to be involved if the copyright had been registered, but if it's not registered how does it work?

 

[1935]

I guess what I'm really asking is do the heirs already hold the copyright (in the same way as if Grandma had sold to a third party during her lifetime), or is there something that has to be done by a court to explicitly give the heirs the copyright, before they would then be able to sign those rights to another party.

 

[quincy]

Thanks Quincy. But Grandma is deceased, so who handles the transfer now? Is it simply a matter of the heirs signing over rights that they automatically received (either through a will or through intestate succession laws) and that's it, or must a probate court be involved? I assume probate would be required to be involved if the copyright had been registered, but if it's not registered how does it work?

Whoever inherited the copyrights in the cookbook can register the copyright - and if anyone in the family wants to exercise any of the rights, they would/should get a license from the copyright holder.

The will needs to be reviewed although it is possible that grandma just gave the cookbook rights to a family member prior to her death or it was part of her personal property that was divided up after her death with no thought to copyrights.

There is still the major unanswered question of copyright ownership. That needs to be resolved first.

 

[1935]

My questions were actually for a similar situation where the details of the copyright are known (it's unregistered) and the person was intestate, and all real property (house, car, bank account, etc.) was jointly owned, so the family didn't plan on probating anything. I probably should start a new thread to avoid hijacking this one.

 

[quincy]

Here is a link to the Copyright Office on Copyright Ownership and Transfer:

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap2.html

 

[zddoodah]

The question remaining is, assuming the copyright is unregistered, does a transfer of it have to go through probate, or is a written assignment from the heirs sufficient?

Are you the OP posting under a different screen name? If not, why are you hijacking this thread? I'll proceed as though you are the OP.

The copyright is owned by your grandmother's estate. Was her estate probated when she died? If so, who was the executor/administrator of the estate? That's the only person who can transfer ownership of the copyright. The heirs have nothing that they can assign. That said, any, some or all of the heirs could sign a disclaimer of interest in the copyright.

Say for example, all of the heirs agreed that one grandchild should publish the book and register the copyright and he/she could keep all proceeds from any sales, because everyone is just happy that Grandma's cookbook gets famous---can the heirs simply sign over any rights in the copyright to the grandchild, or does probate need to be involved in order to allow the grandchild to register the copyright in his own name (or the name of a company or trust that he creates for managing the book publishing)?

No way to know without information about what was done with grandmother's estate right after she died.

I assume probate would be required to be involved if the copyright had been registered, but if it's not registered how does it work?

Those two things are unrelated. "A transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner’s duly authorized agent." 17 U.S.C. section 204(a).

 

[quincy]

Are you the OP posting under a different screen name? If not, why are you hijacking this thread? I'll proceed as though you are the OP.

The copyright is owned by your grandmother's estate. Was her estate probated when she died? If so, who was the executor/administrator of the estate? That's the only person who can transfer ownership of the copyright. The heirs have nothing that they can assign. That said, any, some or all of the heirs could sign a disclaimer of interest in the copyright.




No way to know without information about what was done with grandmother's estate right after she died.




Those two things are unrelated. "A transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner’s duly authorized agent." 17 U.S.C. section 204(a).

Please read what was written before responding. Thank you.

 

[adjusterjack]

See OP's new thread and let's stop adding to this one. Avoid parallel discussions.

(1) Copyright Transfer by Operation of Law | Forum.FreeAdvice.com

 

[quincy]

See OP's new thread and let's stop adding to this one. Avoid parallel discussions.

(1) Copyright Transfer by Operation of Law | Forum.FreeAdvice.com

1935 said a new thread would be started. Post #22. That is why it is important to read threads before responding.

 

[adjusterjack]

1935 said a new thread would be started. Post #22. That is why it is important to read threads before responding.

Some people need reminders.

 

[quincy]

Some people need reminders.

Several, in fact.