Doctrines Relating to Joint Creation,
Betsy Rosenblatt, April 1998.
Anne Hiaring, Multimedia Licensing, 490 PLI/Pat.
481 (September, 1997). Hypothetical case regarding the creation of a
CD-Rom; Overview of Copyright, Trademark, Right of Publicity, and Contractual
Ownership issues rasied by the creation of a multimedia product by many
people.
Laura G. Lape, A Narrow View of Creative Cooperation:
The Current State of Joint Work Doctrine, 61 Alb. L. Rev. 43 (1997).
Comprehensive discussion of current legal treatment of joint works, especially
works created through internet transmission and contribution.
William A. Tanenbaum, Intellectual
Property Due Diligence for Online Services, Internet Web Site Development
and International Conflict of Laws Analysis, PLI Order No. G4-3961 (September,
1996) Article explicating some of the special considerations that arise
in the process of internet site development.
Margaret Chon, New Wine Bursting from
Old Bottles: Collaborative Internet Art, Joint Works, and Entrepreneurship,
75 Or. L. Rev 257 (1996). Explores whether the current copyright system
is sufficient to deal with the internet, especially the jointly-created
artworks that are created on the internet.
Student is Joint Author, Not Liable for Infringement
Suit by Professor, 6 NO. 6 Mealey's Litig. Rep.: Intell. Prop. 5 (December
15, 1997). Graduate student and professor conducted a study and the
student published a paper based on the results. Lawsuit ensued.
Andrew J. Wu, Dealing with Copyright Aspects of Computer-Aided
Authorship, 13 NO. 9 Computer L. Strategist 1 (January, 1997). Brief
discussion of ownership in software-aided creations such as websites that
use "canned" images.
Sandip. H. Patel, Graduate Students' Ownership and
Attribution Rights in Intellectual Property, 71 Ind. L.J. 481 (Spring, 1996).
Deals primarily with student intellectual ownership of theories and inventions
developed while in school, comparing these ownership rights wit those of
professors. Explores patent and copyright implications of student research,
including work-for-hire and joint authorship theories.
Community
for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989). Work for hire
case: CCNV hired Reid, to create a statue. Court clarified definition of
"work for hire" and found that the statue was not a "work
for hire," but found that statue may be a joint work of CCNV and Reid.
Ashton-Tate v. Ross, 916 F.2d 516
(9th Cir. 1990). Joint authorship case: One software developer (claimant)
sued another for unilaterally marketing spreadsheet program on which both
had worked. Court found no joint authorship because the contribution of
the claimant (a list of user commands) was not independently copyrightable
and therefore not sufficiently significant.
Childress v. Taylor, 945 F.2d 500 (2d
Cir.1991) Actor asked playwright to help create work based on research
and ideas of actor. Actor revised play with another playwright; original
playwright sued, claiming that she was joint author and therefore shared
rights to play. Court found no joint authorship. This case stands for the
propositions that, in order for a work to be "joint," (1) the
contributions of each joint author must be independently copyrightable and
(2) the authors must intend to create a joint work.
Erickson v. Trinity Theatre, 13 F.3d
1061 (7th Cir. 1994) Playwtrite sued theatre to enjoin performance of
her work, which she created while working with actors at the theatre. Similarly
to Childress, court found no joint authorship, holding that (1) to create
joint work, each author must intend respective contributions to be contribution
to unitary whole and (2) collaborators are not joint authors unless they
intended to be joint authors when work was created and contributions to
works are independently copyrightable.
Napoli v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., 874
F.Supp. 206 (N.D. Ill. 1995) Court held that rights in the design of
a graphic user interface could create joint authorship in the work as a
whole, together with the rights in the computer code itself. (vacated on
unspecified grounds, 926 F.Supp.780 (N.D. Ill. 1996).
Ahn v. Midway, 965 F.Supp.3d 1134 (N.D. Ill.
1997) Martial Arts expert and dancer were held to have created independently
copyrightable coreography for the video game "Mortal Kombat" but
not to have joint copyrights in the game. Joint Authorship issue
was moot because the artists had signed "work for hire" contracts.