Author: Andrew Williams
Date: 01:48:19 05/04/02
Go up one level in this thread
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.." > >Specially ordered work is contract work. > >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. 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. > Sorry to keep harping on about this, but this is not correct. Here's a sample discussion: A: I'd like you to build a book for my chess program B: Great! But I must insist on retaining the copyright to my work. A: OK. But I want exclusive access to it for n years. B: Agreed. The two parties, A and B, could draw up *any* contract they like for the work that is commissioned. And this contract could dispose of the copyright issue in *any* way the two parties agree to. I don't know what arrangement Ed and Jeroen came to, but there's no reason to believe that the default position (for the US) applies. This is why some authors retain copyright to their work and others don't. It depends on the relationship between publisher and author. Andrew NB I just made up the dialogue above. A and B do NOT represent Ed and Jeroen. >Besides, I was just making the point, it is a VERY real possibility that the >book doesn't even belong to Noomen.
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