Author: Jeremiah Penery
Date: 22:38:55 05/03/02
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On May 03, 2002 at 23:54:15, Slater Wold wrote: >On May 03, 2002 at 23:45:22, Jeremiah Penery wrote: > >>This seems to be an issue of contracting a work vs. commissioning a work. In >>general, an author under contract to write "one or more books" without >>guidelines retains copyright on those books, while an author who is commissioned >>to write a specific book, with some guidelines, does not retain copyright. I'm >>sure this can be altered by the specific contract between the two parties. >> >>Unfortunately, it can be difficult to define "commissioned work" accurately. >>Textbooks and reference books are mostly commissioned works, most other books >>aren't. Is the Rebel book a commissioned work, or simply a contracted one? >>Maybe that's the important question here. > >Let me reinterate: > >"Although the general rule is that the person who creates the work is its >author, there is an exception to that principle; the exception is a work made >for hire, which is a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her >employment; or a work specially ordered or commissioned in certain specified >circumstances. When a work qualifies as a work made for hire, the employer or >commissioning party is considered to be the author." > >The key being "..or a work specially ordered or commissioned.." IMO, the key words are "in certain specified circumstances", and "When a work qualifies". What are the "certain specified circumstances" mentioned? And does the Rebel book qualify? >Specially ordered work is contract work. Specially ordered work is commissioned work, not contract work. I can have a contract that says I will write 3 more books over the next 5 years, for X sum of money. Those books are contracted works, but they are not specially ordered, and they are not commissioned. The author still retains copyright. >Commissioned work is commissioned work. > >Bottom line, if Ed and Christophe approached Noomen and asked for a book, in >return for money, the book belongs to them. This is my point of contention - I think your statement is false. Whatever the circumstances here, I'm not convinced the book should be considered a "commissioned work". And if it is, its copyright status could depend on the contract made between Ed and Jeroen. >While I am not 100% certain they >did, my guess would be this is what happened. I am 100% certain Noomen HAS been >compensated for his work. Yes, of course he has. >Besides, I was just making the point, it is a VERY real possibility that the >book doesn't even belong to Noomen. It is a possibility, I agree. I just don't think it's the correct one. In addition, we're both applying US copyright law to this, which may or may not hold 100% true in the Netherlands.
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