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Copyright Ownership as an Independent Contractor
By Olivia Loftin
When an independent contractor is hired by a company to perform work such as writing a book, designing a website, translating a novel, or designing a logo, it may not be clear to the independent contractor who owns the copyright for that work.
1. I am creating work for a company as an independent contractor, do I own the copyright?
The rules surrounding copyright ownership are governed by federal law under the US Copyright Act of 1976. The general rule is that the independent contractor retains the copyright ownership of the work absent an agreement to the contrary. However, there are explicit exceptions to this rule under the Copyright Act (see Section 101 Definitions). The commission or special ordering of one of the following for use as 1-8 below falls under the exception, subject to a written agreement requirement further described below:
A contribution to a collective work
A part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
A translation
A compilation
A supplementary work
A test
Answer material for a test
An atlas
If an independent contractor is (1) commissioned or there is a special order to create one of these eight works, and (2) expressly agrees in a written agreement between the company and the independent contractor that the work is a ‘work made for hire’, then the work will be owned by the company and not the independent contractor.
2. My work does not fall under one of those exceptions, does that mean I own the work?
Even if the independent contractor’s work does not fall under one of the eight listed exceptions, the company for whom the independent contractor created the work may still own the copyright to it. If the independent contractor signs a contract with a company that explicitly assigns the copyright in the work to the company, then the company will own the work.
3. What if there is no agreement assigning the copyright to the company?
If an independent contractor’s work falls outside one of the eight statutory exceptions described above and there is no agreement between the independent contractor and the company expressly assigning the copyright ownership of the work to the company, then the independent contractor, as its creator, owns the copyright in the work.