Copywrite issue
Discussion
Person A has been asked by company X to provide freelance written and verbal work in a business situation. The work is to be produced and presented over the course of a day.
Person A pays a friend, person B to help out. Person B was employed to manage the interaction with attendees and to oversee operations. During the day, person A asks person B to provide the written work (person A is too busy to do the work himself) which is to be verbally presented to business X at the end of the day. Person B produced a piece of written work on the day, over and above the stipulation of the initial agreement.
Person A presents the work that person B produced but presents the work in such a way that company X believe the work has been written by person A. Person A does not mention or credit person B.
Who has the right to reproduce, publish, put their name to and claim ownership of the work person B produced?
Person A pays a friend, person B to help out. Person B was employed to manage the interaction with attendees and to oversee operations. During the day, person A asks person B to provide the written work (person A is too busy to do the work himself) which is to be verbally presented to business X at the end of the day. Person B produced a piece of written work on the day, over and above the stipulation of the initial agreement.
Person A presents the work that person B produced but presents the work in such a way that company X believe the work has been written by person A. Person A does not mention or credit person B.
Who has the right to reproduce, publish, put their name to and claim ownership of the work person B produced?
If person B was employed by person A then prson A owns the rights.
The company may have an agreement with person A to take the copyright though.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-emp...
If person B is being paid in any way I would say he is an employee.
The company may have an agreement with person A to take the copyright though.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-emp...
If person B is being paid in any way I would say he is an employee.
It depends on the contract your wife had for the job. If it specifically excluded the task of writing a presentation there might be an argument that it was outside the scope of her employment. If she was employed to "help out" and there was no clause as to copyright in the contract then I think she's on a bit of a sticky wicket unfortunately.
Mojooo said:
If person B was employed by person A then prson A owns the rights.
The company may have an agreement with person A to take the copyright though.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-emp...
If person B is being paid in any way I would say he is an employee.
You do realise there's a difference between an employee and a contractor providing services.The company may have an agreement with person A to take the copyright though.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-emp...
If person B is being paid in any way I would say he is an employee.
If this was a one-off, it is unlikely that B is an employee.
Need more facts.
My wife is perfectly happy for the work she produced to be used either by the company or the friend who hired her, what she is pretty insistent about though is that she should be credited as the author of the work wherever it goes on to be published by the friend. The job was an informal cash in hand arrangement which initially had no brief to provide any written work. Person A had over-stretched themselves and in a panic asked Person B to take it on. There was no discussion about ownership, perhaps naively person B assumed she would be credited and was shocked to see person A present the work to a large audience as his own.
Quick answer based on a quick review of the facts.
Person A asks Person B to create some written material, the copyrighted work.
First question, is person B really an employee? Sounds more like a comission as it's a very ad hoc situation. If that is the case then the copyright vests in the creator not the person who comissioned the work. The only way to assign the full rights in the copyright in such a situation is for B to assign their rights to A via writing. It can't be done any other way, copyright has to be assigned in writing.
If B was employed and created the work in the course of their employment then the default situation is that the copyright owner is the employer.
B will have moral rights to be identified as the creator of the work, unless they have fully assigned those as well.
Therefore, it seems likely B owns the work and has not assigned the rights in it to A. B should be cited as the copyright owner.
I'll take a fuller look later and see if anything needs to be amended based on a proper read through of the thread!!
Person A asks Person B to create some written material, the copyrighted work.
First question, is person B really an employee? Sounds more like a comission as it's a very ad hoc situation. If that is the case then the copyright vests in the creator not the person who comissioned the work. The only way to assign the full rights in the copyright in such a situation is for B to assign their rights to A via writing. It can't be done any other way, copyright has to be assigned in writing.
If B was employed and created the work in the course of their employment then the default situation is that the copyright owner is the employer.
B will have moral rights to be identified as the creator of the work, unless they have fully assigned those as well.
Therefore, it seems likely B owns the work and has not assigned the rights in it to A. B should be cited as the copyright owner.
I'll take a fuller look later and see if anything needs to be amended based on a proper read through of the thread!!
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