Authorship and Ownership PDF

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Summary

Notes on the topic of authorship and ownership of copyright....

Description

Authorship and Ownership

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How do we define an author?

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S.9 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) states that an author is a person who creates the work.

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S.104 and s.105 are statutory presumptions on who is the author in different types of works.

Donoghue v. Allied Newspapers Ltd. [1938]: It was held that contribution to the expression is authorship. However, contribution to the underlying facts or ideas is not authorship.

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There must also be the right sort of contribution.

Tate v. Thomas [1911]: It was held that catchwords, title, and leading figures of a play did not constitute as authorship. It does not contribute enough to the actual expression.

Brighton v. Jones [2005]: It was held that suggestions by a director to a playwright about problems with a script did not constitute authorship.

Cala Homes v. McAlpine [1995]: It was held that a detailed explanation of a house design, including sketches did constitute authorship.

Joint Authorships

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S.10 of the CDPA states that there are three requirements to a joint authorship:

a. There must be sufficient contribution on the parts of each author. b. The work must be created through collaboration. c. The contributions by the parties cannot be distinct. If they are indeed distinct, then each author may have copyright in their own work, but they do not have joint authorship.

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There is a difference between authorship of the copyright material and ownership of the copyright material.

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Copyrights like other property rights can be assigned. Therefore, the right-holder does not necessarily mean the author as copyrights can be assigned.

First Ownership:

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S.11(1) of the CDPA states that ‘the author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it.’ The person who created the work always has the first copyright in it. The first owner is always the author of the work, except in:

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Employees, under s.11(2) of the CDPA.

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Works by employees are owned by the employers.

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There are a few cases that help us establish who is an employee.

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It must be shown that: a. The work was made by an employee. b. The work must be made in course of the employment. c. There must not be any agreement to the contrary.

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There is a distinction between employees and independent contractors.

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Was the work created in the course of employment?

Stevenson v. MacDonald & Evans [1952]: An accountant was giving lectures, and was allowed to use company infrastructure, plus having said expenses paid, however he could not be ordered to prepare for said lectures. Therefore the court held that this was not created in the course of his employment.

Duration

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Remember the basic copyright trade-off: rights for a limited monopoly.

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A limited monopoly means that the copyright is limited in scope and in duration.

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Copyright is a balancing act: where the legislators must balance between the interests of the users, the public, authors, and investors.

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CDPA 1988: Life of the author + 70 years after their deaths for literary works....