Several online resources can be useful in finding the current copyright holder of a work:
- The WATCH File (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) maintained by the Harry Ransom Center and the University of Reading is a database of copyright contacts for writers, artists, and prominent figures in other creative fields.
- Artists Rights Society is a copyright, licensing and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States.
- DACS is a visual artists’ rights management organization in the United Kingdom.
- The ADAGP is a French collective which monitors copyright in the visual arts.
- ASCAP and BMI are performing rights organizations which license and collect royalties for musical works.