IWS has the expertise to know when, where, and how to find the original source and determining who owns the copyright. IWS will work to obtain the appropriate permission to match the writer's intended book productions and distribution. Rights to use copyrighted materials almost always have conditions, including proper attribution, and they often have fees for their use. It is also important to note that the owner of electronic rights (online access to copyrighted materials for example) can be different from the owner for print rights. In a recent large permissions project this occurred for over 10% of the clearances being sought.

Joyce Miller, the founder of IWS, is the primary Copyright Permissions Editor. She is a former intellectual property specialist and copyright manager with paralegal training. She received a wealth of experience working on NASA and other government-funded multimedia projects.