It's even worse than the phrase "finding the rightsholder" would suggest. Most authors pass away without clearly designating a single literary heir, so the righ

It's even worse than the phrase "finding the rightsholder" would suggest. Most authors pass away without clearly designating a single literary heir, so the rights often get split among heirs, which is bad enough when it happens once, but by the time grandchildren start inheriting fractional rights, getting the legal ducks in a row is economically impossible. Or maybe the rights end up in the hands of someone who is happy to see the work lost forever. Authors themselves are sometimes happy to help their old work get lost forever.