Suggested respondent: Samuelson or the owner's retained IP counsel. Section 201 separates rights in contributions from rights in the collective work; this is why a publisher's possession of files is not the whole permissions analysis. Statutory source.
Ask: “What is a defensible way to classify twenty years of staff, freelancer, syndicated and acquired content without treating every item as identical?”
A strong answer should cover: contract cohorts, document sampling limits, exceptions requiring item-level review, assignment history, relevant jurisdictions and the difference between unclear and absent permission. Ask for the evidence threshold for releasing a small cleared cohort while excluding unresolved material.
Follow-up: “What exactly would you need to say ‘approved for this use’, and who must sign that conclusion?”
Approved expert quote: [Not yet collected.]