title_body: If a publisher owns the rights to their own content does it become public domain if they go out of business? If a publisher owns the rights to their content and they go out of business how can you find out who owns it?  Does the content they created and published become public domain?  Who would own the copyright if the author IS the publisher?
upvoted_answer: The publisher does not own the copyright unless they create the work--the author does. In traditional publishing, the author typically gives a world-wide exclusive license to use the copyright to the publisher, though many small and mid-sized presses will only ask for rights to the areas or languages they distribute in. If the publisher goes out of business or the work goes out of print, the rights generally revert to the author. If the rights do not revert, they may get sold to creditors or other interested parties to help settle the publisher's debts. If the publisher goes under in a huge mess, it's possible that the manuscript will become an "orphan work"--which basically means that nobody is really sure who owns the copyright.