All Dickens' works are in the public domain (at least in the US) by now, so no one owns the rights.
Note that this applies only to the original works or editions published before the 1920s. You can't just copy an edition published in, say, 1970.
The copyright to Charles Dickens' works are owned by the estate of Charles Dickens, which includes his descendants and any organizations to which he left the rights. Generally, copyright protection for his works lasts for 70 years after his death.
Copyrights on Jane Austen's original work have long since run out. They are all in the public domain, meaning they belong to everybody or to nobody, depending on how you choose to look at it.
tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905
"A Christmas Carol" was written by Charles Dickens and was published in 1843. As such, the copyright to the original text has expired and it is now in the public domain. However, adaptations, illustrations, and specific versions of the story may have their own copyright owners.
Microsoft owns the rights to Halo.
who owns movie rights? how do you research movie rights?
The copyright for the Peanuts characters, including Charlie Brown, is now held by the family of Charles Schultz.
No, he doesn't. He owns the rights to "Carolina on My Mind" which is part of the Beatles collection he owns the rights to. He does not own the rights to "South Carolina on My Mind".
who owns publishing rights of the turtles happy together
If you are referring to the Rogers & Hammerstein version, their estate owns the rights.
RHI Entertainment owns the home video rights to the Little Rascals films made from 1927-1938. CBS Television owns the TV rights. Warner Brothers owns the rights to the 1938-1944 Our Gang shorts. The 1922-1926 shorts are in the public domain.
Authorship (and therefore copyright) is disputed, but most rights can be negotiated through Corbis, who own the negative.
The "Twilight" series was written by Stephenie Meyer. The intellectual property rights to the books and films are typically owned by the respective publishers and movie studios involved in their production.
The Walt Disney company owns the image rights (and other rights such as movie rights) for Baby Pooh, along with image rights for many other Disney Characters.