Investigated
Who owns and controls the original reels?
Evidence strength: The ownership split is well documented: the U.S. government owns and preserves the camera-original reel, while The Sixth Floor Museum holds the copyright and reproduction rights. A smaller dissenting literature disputes whether the publicly seen footage is an unaltered original, but that does not overturn the documented custody and rights arrangements.
Short answer
Image: aeonlaw.com
The U.S. government owns the physical camera-original reel and stores it at the National Archives in College Park. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza controls the copyright and licenses reproductions; the Zapruder family donated those rights in 1999. The main unresolved dispute concerns authenticity and alteration claims, not the formal ownership split.