[cc-licenses] author/copyright holder
rob at robmyers.org
rob at robmyers.org
Fri Apr 7 09:04:52 EDT 2006
Quoting Daniel <dbuckles at sympatico.ca>:
> It is not clear to me what distinctions to make between author and copyright
> holder, especially when there are multiple authors.
I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, you really should ask a lawyer.
Hopefully list members will point out where I'm wrong here. :-)
If I write a poem and pop it on my web site I am author and rights holder.
If I am paid by a company to write a poem, and assign copyright in return for
payment, I am the author but not the rightsholder.
If I am employed by a company to write poems, am not the author or the
rightsholder (if this is a bad example think of the end credits of a
film: made
by hundreds of people but with a film company named as the "author").
In the first case, I can CC the poem. In the second and third cases, I cannot,
the company must.
> It is possible and
> advisable to include all authors as copyright holders?
In a joint work the authors have joint copyright IIRC.
> [...]
> What are good practices in this regard, and what are the
> options/implications of multiple copyright holders?
I think only copyright holders can defend copyright infringement. So this is
more difficult with multiple authors.
> Are all authors
> automatically copyright holders, and should their names appear as such (in
> addition to being included as part of the citation).
It depends on the project but if it is an open collaboration I think all the
contributors are copyright holders. Canadian law may be different from English
law on this though. :-)
> Creative Commons sight
> seems to assume a single copyright holder, with attribution to multiple
> authors.
I don't think CC do assume this. The licenses mention both copyright
holder and
author as these may be separate legal entities.
- Rob.
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