I can has copyright permission?

LongDrive — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:14:16 -0800

Yet another copyright question. Seeking advice or success stories on locating copyright owner for strange book from the 60s. Copyright management is a large part of my work, and while I strongly oppose things like the proposed Orphan Works Bill, I am now in the position where I would like to obtain permission to reuse an image, but am having a hell of a time tracking down the copyright owner.

The original image appears in this strange pet book that was published in the 60's (I am guessing, there is no date inside), by "Pet Libary Ltd". Further research found that they were owned by a company called Sternco which is now a dedicated real estate company. They later sold off the pet business to Hartz. Both companies operate out of New Jersey, which is the state where this original "Pet Library LTD" address is listed in the book.

Now my emails have basically gone unanswered, phone calls to both businesses above are greeted with confusion (understandably), and I am basically at a dead end.

I assume that if I used the US copyright search system where you pay someone by the hour to go through their records, I would probably come up with similar results to the two companies above. If the publisher still actually existed, this would probably be alot easier as I know most publishers have reproduction and rights departments.

I won't use the image without copyright, but I am wondering if anyone else has been down a similar road in terms of tracking down hard-to-find copyright holders, and if so, how did you do it? Otherwise, is there any other avenue that I may be overlooking in terms of how to approach this large company? Godspeed hive mind.

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I can has copyright permission?