copyright-holder-finder

Copyright Holder Finder

What This Skill Does

Produces a step-by-step research plan for identifying the copyright holder of a specific piece of content — image, footage, text, music, or other media — tailored to the content type and jurisdiction.

When To Use This Skill

• You want to license an image, clip, or music track but cannot identify who owns the rights
• You found archival footage or a photograph with no clear attribution and need to clear it for use
• You are producing a documentary or article and need to trace rights holders for third-party material
• You need to determine whether a work is orphaned (no identifiable rights holder) before applying fair use or other exceptions

What You Need To Provide

Required:

• A description of the content you are trying to clear (what it is, where you found it, any identifying details — title, creator name, date, publication, watermark, metadata)
• The content type (photograph, video footage, music recording, text excerpt, illustration, etc.)

Optional:

• The jurisdiction you are working in (affects which registries and legal frameworks apply)
• What you already know about the provenance (e.g., "published in a magazine in the 1990s but no photographer credit," "found on a stock site with no licensing information")
• Your intended use (editorial, commercial, broadcast, online-only — this affects which rights you need to clear)
• Any deadline pressure (some research steps take weeks; knowing your timeline helps prioritise)

How the Assistant Approaches This

1. Assesses what is already known. Before proposing research steps, the assistant inventories the identifying information you have — creator name, publication, date, metadata, watermarks, reverse image search results — to determine how close you already are to an answer and which gaps remain.

2. Builds a research plan specific to the content type. The path to a copyright holder differs by medium: photographs route through image agencies, photographer registries, and publication archives; music routes through performing rights organisations, mechanical rights databases, and publisher catalogues; text routes through publishers, literary agents, and copyright registration databases. The assistant selects the relevant path and provides specific registries, databases, and organisations to contact.