My grandfather illustrated a number of childrens books in the 1920's.
As far as I can determine none of the publishers are still in
business. Who owns the copyright on the illustrations? I don't know
what happened to the original drawings but sure would like to find
out.

---

Request for Question Clarification by wayga-ga on 07 Oct 2002 02:57 PDT

Hi elinart,

It would help to know your grandfather's name and the names of some of
the books he illustrated.

Copyright law is rather complicated and many factors come into play
depending on when a work is published. If you just want some
background, Ivan Hoffman, B.A., J.D, has a page, "When Do Copyrights
Expire?" at...

http://home.earthlink.net/~ivanlove/expiration.html

Thanks, wayga-ga

---

Clarification of Question by elinart-ga on 07 Oct 2002 08:10 PDT

My grandfather's name is Hugh Spencer. Some of the books: Billy Bunny
and Uncle Lucky Lefthindfoot written by David Cory, Billy Bunny and
Timmy Chipmuck, same author, Saucy Rabbit by Jeanette E. Perkins. Most
of his illustrations do show his name. Thank you.

This is NOT a definitive answer, however, it would be unusual for the
copyright not to be in your grandfather's name. It should only be in
the publisher's name if he had a "work-for-hire" agreement with them.
As wayga wrote, having your grandfather's name will be essential to
uncovering the definitive answer :)