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The copyright statute defines the "copyright owner" as the individual or entity who owns a particular right or rights with respect to the copyrighted work in question. (17 U.S.C. sec 101).
Author
Transfer From Author to Another
Author
Original Author
Joint Work
Works-Made-For-Hire
Collective Works
Original Author
At the outset, the original author(s) of the work in question is the owner of the copyright (17 U.S.C. sec. 201(a)).
Joint Work
Where there is more than one author, the individuals own the copyright as co-owners, unless there is a written agreement stating otherwise. (17 U.S.C. sec. 201(a); Copyright Office Circular 1).
Works-Made-For-Hire
The copyright statute defines a work-made-for-hire as follows: (17 U.S.C. sec. 101)
- a work originated by an employee acting within his employment responsibilities, during the course of the work day; or
- a work whose creation has been specifically requested or commissioned to be used as part of a movie or other visual image with sound, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an educational text, an examination, the answers to an examination or an atlas. The parties have agreed in writing that the work is to be a work-made-for-hire.
The person for whom the work is prepared, whether it be an employer or another, is considered the author of the work and owns the copyright, provided there is no written agreement to the contrary. (17 U.S.C. sec. 201(b); Copyright Office Circular 9).
Collective Works
A collective work compiles several authors’ work into a single work. Each author’s contribution is a separate work in and of itself. (17 U.S.C. sec. 101).
Copyright ownership in collective works is as follows: (17 U.S.C. sec. 201)
- The author of the collective work holds the copyright in the collection.
- The author of the collection only has the right to copy and distribute the collection as a whole.
- The author whose separate work is contained in the collection continues to hold the copyright for that work
Transfer From Author to Another
Ownership of a copyright may be transferred to another, in whole or in part. An owner may choose to transfer all of his exclusive rights to another or he may choose to transfer a particular right or rights, maintaining some ownership. (17 U.S.C. sec. 201(d)(2)).
A copyright is regarded as personal property. Therefore, all laws governing personal property are applicable to copyrights. Such laws include the laws pertaining to wills and estates, contracts, personal property transfers and business practices. (17 U.S.C. sec. 201(d)(1);Copyright Office Circular 1).
Methods for transferring copyright ownership are as follows: (Copyright Office Circular 1)
- for transfer of an exclusive right or rights, there must be a written agreement of transfer, signed by the owner of the right(s) to be conveyed or his legally authorized representative.
- a transfer which occurs as a result of death will be achieved by the operation of the law governing wills and estate matters.
Please note that ownership of a copyright may be separate from ownership of the object in which the copyrighted material is contained. Thus, transferring ownership of the copyright will not have an effect on ownership of the object in which the copyrighted material is contained. (17 U.S.C. sec. 202; Copyright Office Circular 1).
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