Discussion:
What is the name of your state? KS
What rights do copyright holders (who are not authors) have when it comes to deciding to rewrite material? Must they get the approval of the authors?
Answer:
Copyright law in the U.S. does not protect the "moral rights" of authors. The copyright holder has all of the rights associated with the copyright, including the right to control and create derivative works. In your case, the copyright holder could rewrite to his heart's content, without getting the authors permission.
There is one caveat to this -- although U.S. copyright law does not recognize moral rights, there are some protections for authors found in trademark law. Basically, Trademark law creates a duty to correctly attribute the work to the author (although some circuits have limited this duty to simply avoid misattribution) and a duty to avoid linking the author's name to a derivative work that is very different from the original, especially if it makes the author look bad. See King v. Innovation Books, 976 F.2d 824, and Gilliam v. American Broadcasting Companies, 538 F.2d 14.
In other words, the copyright holder can make whatever derivative works he wants, but he may need to keep in mind what the original author would want anyway!
As a side note, in most countries, "moral rights" are inalienable -- that is, the author retains the right to demand attribution and to give the thumbs-up on derivaive works even after selling the copyrights to someone else. That's not the way it's done here, however.