Do I still own the copyright?
Hello, I am an independent video
producer that does work for a large
firm. There are no written
agreements that my work is a ''work
for hire''. I am not on the payroll,
and I work from my own office
offsite. I also receive a 1099-misc a
the end of the year... I am not an
employee.
My question is, do I still retain
copyrights to work I did, if I am
required by the company to place a
''�Copyright ''Their Company'' 2008''
on all of my products? Or is that
essentially me signing the copyrights
to them?
Thanks
Re: Do I still own the copyright?
Excellent question.
Your putting "�20xx, CompanyName. All rights reserved" on your materials holds out to the public that Company owns the copyright. However, the lack of written agreement that this is a "work made for hire" flies in the face of the statutory requirement for such works. I'd say there's a good case to be made either way; I don't know of a precedent that answers this question.
However, that does NOT say that you want to be the seminal case. Being a seminal case is a very pricey proposition with no guarantee (sometimes no clue) of which way the judge will rule.
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