Who owns the copyrights to the Time Machine?

Answer 1

I don't know the specific answer, but I can suggest to you that it is perhaps a more complicated question than you might think. There is the basic ownership of the original book, there are publishing and printing rights, there are the rights that were transferred/sold when the movie versions were made, and there may be several other kinds of rights. There are separate rights around the ownership of the films and their use, independent of the rights governing the original printed material. Even if the original book is in the public domain (I don't know), the films will have their own rights attached to them and they cannot be used freely by anyone, even if the book can. Ownership of intellectual property is a complex legal area; if you plan on using any of this material, you should be completely clear about rights before you move ahead, or you could find yourself in the middle of an unwanted and unanticipated legal battle.