Two heads are better than one.
— Common understanding

”And then King Solomon said, Let me have that baby! Now who’s got a knife?’ And the real mother cried and cried when he said that . . . and that was how he knew which one was the owner of the baby.“
— Third grader interpreting the Bible

Joint authorship: when more than one person is involved in working together to create a copyrighted work.

Joint ownership: when more than one person owns rights in a copyrighted work.

Copyrighted works which have either joint authors, or joint owners, or both, are frequently referred to as joint works or joint copyrights, which can be a source of confusion.

Determining whether work might be subject to joint authorship or joint ownership legal rules is critical to the process of protecting your work and making sure that it will continue to be marketable. This FAQ (guide to Frequently Asked Questions) provides basic information about some common legal questions about copyright and joint works.

I want to write a book with someone else. Who is the author for registering the copyright?

The copyright law presumes that a work’s maker is its author. Where two or more people are involved in the creation process, each contributor claims authorship.

Under the law, you are automatically an author when you personally take part in the creation of a work. Because authorship is a fact about how the work was actually created, it cannot be affected by contract—unlike ownership, which can be transferred, divided, and otherwise affected by contract. Even if you transfer part of or all of your copyright—you will always remain an author.

Should I sign a contract to do some freelance designs on the computer that says that l’m not the author, but the company is?

Authorship is important to determine, because the length of copyright protection given to a work is determined by the author’s lifespan. Because authorship is a concept with important consequences, it is necessary to determine the authorship of a work and report it correctly in registering copyrights. Contracts cannot say who the author of something is; that is determined by the facts. However, it is possible that the company is trying to hire you to make a “work for hire.” If this is true, the company will be the author, and the length of protection will be 75 years. It’s also possible that you and the company will be joint authors on the project!

My sister helped me come up with the design for a ceramic plate. Are we joint authors?

Whether a work has more than one author is a question of circumstances and intent. There are two types of joint authors:

• where the contributions of each author are inseparable
• where the contributions of each author are interdependent

Inseparable contributions result when authors work closely together—to the point where their separate contributions cannot be easily identified as coming from either author alone. Interdependent contributions result when authors each work primarily apart or on different sections, but each contribution depends heavily on the others for the work to have meaning as a whole. Songs are a well-known example: the lyrics and music of a song are separately identifiable, and are frequently written by different people, but are usually interdependent.




Joint authorship requires intent—without the intent to create a joint work, two or more authors producing inseparable or interdependent works will produce derivative or collective works.

I took a photo out of a magazine, scanned it into the computer, and changed the background behind the people. Do l have a joint copyright with the photographer?

Works based on other works are called derivative works. Derivative works and collective works (collections of information or copyrighted works) are frequently confused with joint works. Authorship and ownership for these two types of works are different from those of true joint works.

A derivative work “depends on” an existing, copyrighted work. New versions or updates of existing computer programs, new editions of textbooks, movies or plays made from novels, stuffed toys made from cartoon characters, and abridged versions of previously written works are common examples of derivative works.

The right to create derivative works belongs exclusively to the copyright owner of the original work upon which the derivative is based. However, the rights in the portions of the derivative work which are new are owned by the creator of the derivative work.

Derivative works are distinguished by circumstances surrounding creation, and the intent of the contributors. In a work of joint authorship, two or more contributors are doing their creative work at approximately the same time, and intend their work to be combined. Where a work is finished before the creation of a work which depends on it is started, a derivative work usually results.

If I collect together a bunch of letters written by other people to me, and publish them, is the book a joint work?

This is a classic collective work. A collective work assembles a number of individual works into a composite. Databases, magazines, encyclopedias, and anthologies are examples of collective works. The owner of the copyright for a work which is part of a collective work continues to hold all rights in the individual work—the “author” (the editor) of the collection holds a copyright in its overall selection, arrangement, and presentation.

lf joint authorship is determined by the facts at the time a copyrighted work is created, what is joint ownership?

Ownership of a work may be split in two ways—all rights split between all owners, or some rights to some owners. Joint authors of a work always start out as joint owners of all rights the work. Unless there is a written agreement saying otherwise, joint authors split their ownership equally.

How could I become a joint owner of a work?

A person can become a joint owner by contract or inheritance. If an author transfers a 1/2 ownership interest in the work to someone else, there will be 2 “joint owners.” If one owner decides to transfer the interest to two others in equal amounts, there will be three owners—one with 50%, and two with 25%.

If I own a copyright jointly, can I sell it to someone else? Do I need the permission of the other joint owners?

Joint owners with partial ownership of all rights in a copyrighted work have certain rights in the work and certain obligations to the other joint owners. The rights include a right to license, and the obligations include a duty to account. The right-to-license rule says that any joint owner of a partial interest in all rights to a work may grant a nonexclusive license in any rights in the whole work, without informing or getting the permission of the other owners. The duty-to-account rule says that any joint owner who generates income from licensing a jointly-owned work has a duty to account to the other joint owners for a portion of any profits made or any damage to the marketability of the work. While a joint owner may license one or more of the rights in a jointly-owned work without the permission of the others, he or she may not make an exclusive license or sale of copyright rights without all the owners’ consent in writing. However—a joint owner is always free to transfer his or her partial interest in the whole work to another party without the permission of the other owners.

DOs AND DONTs FOR JOINT OWNERSHIP

Because joint owners can license a work without consulting the other joint owners, joint ownership poses a serious threat to the best commercial uses of a work—because any one joint owner may perceive his or her interests to be better served by cutting a separate deal.

Exclusive rights are always worth far more than nonexclusive rights—so each joint owner stands to benefit far more from a partial interest in a single exclusive license.

If more than two people are involved in the creation of a copyrighted work, they should ensure its marketability by signing a written agreement before or just after creation, limiting their abilities to license away rights in the work without the other’s permission, and stating that if either joint owner transfers his or her rights in the work, the intended recipients of the transfer will also be bound not to exploit the work without all owners’ agreement.

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