Willard and Grandchild, 1982

      The advice that is often given to authors is to make sure that the rights to their “intellectual properties” is clearly and separately spelled out in their wills.  I imagine that similar advice is given to artists and other people who do creative work that ends up being copyrighted.  I wonder how many people actually follow that advice.
      A case in point concerns my Uncle Willard.  Now and again I get inquiries from people wanting to know who holds his copyrights now that he is dead.  The queries are from people who want to quote from his books or other published works and, most recently, from a filmmaker who is interested in film rights.
      I know that Willard held the copyrights on all of his books when he was living.  I don’t know about the other rights.  Usually contracts with publishers specify a number of different “companion rights.”  In a contract I signed last week with Arcadia Press, the wording included “the right to use, produce or reproduce, distribute, perform, display, transmit or broadcast” as well as “electronic storage, retrieval, and digital media rights.”
      I seriously doubt if any of Willard’s contracts included that latter provision, at least not for the books published before his death in 1999.  Perhaps the contracts for more recent publications of his work – mostly works reprinted with the permission of his widow, Louise – included those modern concepts.
      Apparently Willard did not specify the intellectual property rights separately from his other belongings and Louise inherited them.  About the time that Louise began to show the effects of increasing dementia, Polly Friedlander asked her to sign over Willard’s copyrights to the Espy Foundation.  At that time, Louise told Polly that she thought Willard’s daughters held the rights.  They thought Louise did.  As far as I know, the issue was not resolved.
      Now, the Espy Foundation is defunct.  Polly, herself, is suffering from dementia and is no longer able to speak.  And no one knows who has the rights.  Maybe Louise’s children?  They don’t think so.  It is a hornet’s nest and will no doubt take attorneys and serious money to straighten it all out.  Willard, I’m sure, would be appalled.
      I can only say that I am SO glad I thought to get written permissions concerning use of Willard’s work well before everyone died or went ga-ga.  Now, I hope I take heed and use this saga as a warning to  make necessary provisions in my own will…