U.S. copyright law grants certain rights regarding original works. So, who owns those rights? 17 U.S.C. § 201 grants ownership of copyright to one or more of the following:
The Author #
Copyright in a work vests initially in the author or authors of the work. Authors of a joint
work are co-owners of the copyright. (A “joint work” is a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.)
Who is the Author? “As a general rule, the author is the party who actually creates the work, that is, the person who translates an idea into a fixed, tangible expression entitled to copyright protection.” Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 737 (1989).
For collaborations, in order to be an “author,” one must contribute something that is independently copyrightable. Childress v. Taylor, 945 F.2d 500, 506 (2d Cir. 1991); Erickson v. Trinity Theatre, Inc., 13 F.3d 1061, 1068 (7th Cir. 1994).
“Ideas, refinements, and suggestions, standing alone, are not the subjects of copyrights.” Erickson v. Trinity Theatre, Inc., 13 F.3d 1061, 1072 (7th Cir. 1994).
The Employer #
In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was
prepared is considered the author and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.
A “work made for hire” is:
- Work prepared by an employee within the scope of employment
- Work “specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.” 17 U.S.C. 101
A Transferee #
The ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or in part by any means of
conveyance.
Any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright may be transferred and owned separately.
This means that there may be owners of different rights to the same work. For example, the original author could retain the right to publish and make copies of the original work while a transferee could own the right to make derivative works such as movies.
(Except for the case of a work for hire, transfer may be terminated and rights revert to the author within a five-year window beginning 35 years after the grant of transfer.)
