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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] author/copyright holder

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: rob AT robmyers.org
  • To: cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] author/copyright holder
  • Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 14:04:52 +0100

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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