1. Copyright Law Boston College Law School January 30, 2003 Initial Ownership

2. Ownership 17 U.S.C. § 201(a) –(a) “Copyright … vests initially in the author or authors of the work …” –(b) “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 ….”

3. Work for Hire 17 U.S.C. § 101: Work for hire: –(1) “a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or” –(2) “a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work …, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.”

4. CCNV v. Reid Factors to consider for employee –Right to control work being performed –Skill required –Source of instrumentalities and tools –Location of work –Duration of relationship –Right to assign additional projects –Hired party’s discretion –Payment method –Role in hiring and paying assistants –Whether in the regular business –Payment of employee benefits, taxes

5. Work for Hire Types of works that can be deemed works for hire under 17 U.S.C. § 101(2) –Specially ordered or commissioned for use as: Contribution to collective work Part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work Translation Supplementary work Compilation Instructional text, test, atlas

6. Work for Hire Work for Hire vs. Assignment –Term Work for Hire: 95 years from creation or 120 from publication Assignment: life of the author + 70 years –Termination Work for Hire: no right to terminate Assignment: right to terminate assignment after 35 years

7. Joint Ownership 17 U.S.C. § 201(a) –(a) “Copyright … vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are co-owners of copyright in the work.” 17 U.S.C. § 101 –“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”

8. Collective Works 17 U.S.C. § 101 –“A ‘collective work’ is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole.”

9. Collective Works 17 U.S.C. § 201(c) –“Copyright in each separate contribution to a collective work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a whole, and vests initially in the author of the contribution. –“In the absence of an express transfer of the copyright or of any rights under it, the owner of the copyright in the collective work is presumed to have acquired only the privilege of reproducing and distributing the contribution as part of that particular collective work, any revision of that collective work, and any later collective work in the same series.”

10. Assignment for Next Class Read IV.B - Duration and Renewal Also read handout: Eldred v. Reno