What if the copyright owner is dead or has gone out of business?
After a copyright owner’s death, copyright will usually be inherited by the owner’s spouse or children. You may be able to check this if you can get a copy of the author’s will (in Australia, contact the Probate Division of the Supreme Court in the State where the author died). If copyright was owned by an Australian company which has gone out of business, you may be able to get information about what happened to the company’s assets (which include copyrights) from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
