WHO OWNS A COPYRIGHT AND FOR HOW LONG?

Ownership of a copyright belongs to the “author” of the work, who is typically the original creator. For all works created on or after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years after the author’s death. This permits the owner’s heirs to monetize the works in addition to the original owner.

A work created by two or more individuals, where they intend to merge or otherwise mesh their works together at time of creation of the work is considered a joint-work. This means that the joint-creation must be prepared “with the intention” that the different creator’s contributions will be merged “into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole” with each author contributing material that “could have been independently copyrighted.”

However, each author’s contributions to the final work need not be equal and the authors do not need to be in the same physical area or create the work at the same time (17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 201(a)). The length of a copyright for a “joint work” is 70 years after the last surviving author’s death.

Another related copyright concept is the “work for hire” doctrine. This means that an individual is commissioned by a third party, an individual or corporation, to create a specific work for the third party. This third party is then the owner of the work created by another (17 U.S.C. § 201(b)).

For a work to be considered a “work for hire,” the copyrighted work must be prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment for their employer (17 U.S.C. § 101). While this may seem straight forward, an analysis of who is considered an “employee” and whether a work was created “within the scope” of the employee’s employment, are determined on a case by case basis.

In addition, a work may also be considered a “work for hire” if a “work [is] specifically ordered or commission 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” as long as “the parties agree in writing that the work is a work made for hire” (17 U.S.C. § 101). For works made for hire and anonymous and pseudonymous works, the duration of copyright is 95 years from first publication of the work or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.