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© Exclusive rights of copyright owners

Ownership is automatic at the time the work is "fixed" in a tangible medium. The term of protection generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

The Copyright Act (Section 106, Title 17, U.S. Code) grants copyright owners five exclusive rights. They include the right to:

1. reproduce the copyrighted work
2. create derivative works (translations, repurposing, etc.) based upon the original copyrighted work
3. distribute copyrighted works to the public by sale, lending, rental, or other means
4. perform the copyrighted work publicly in the case of music, choreography, drama, pantomime, or other works of art
5. display the copyrighted work publicly in the case of pictorial, graphic, sculptural, literary, or other forms of artistic work

»Transfer of ownership

Owners can license or transfer ownership of a copyright, and any or all the exclusive rights of ownership, for a set or open period of time. In other words, owners can sell some or all of these rights, or they can grant a one-time or time-limited use for one or more of these rights.

To obtain permission to reproduce the copyrighted work of another person or organization, developers send a permission request form to the copyright owner or contract with the content developer. A common format for permissions requests "nonexclusive world rights" to reproduce the work in the current publication and its associated editions. (Some sample request forms appear in the links in the "Practices" section.)

Without a specific transfer of ownership rights, the author of the work is automatically the owner, even if the material is being published by someone else. In the absence of an express contract transferring ownership, the publisher would be considered to have only the right of publication in that particular work and its revisions, without any other ownership rights in the materials.

Generally, publishers try to obtain as many of these rights as possible when contracting with a copyright owner, and ownership of "all derivative works and publication in all existing and future media" is a standard contractual clause.

In general, publishing agreements are slanted in the favor of the publisher, since authors who aren't famous already don't have much bargaining power. Publishing contracts tend to take advantage of this by specifying transfer of ownership for even the least likely rights... for example, when my husband signed a contract for a book on Web design and coding, he was specifically asked to sign away his right to open a theme park based on the book (just imagine the rides!)

There has been some dispute in recent years regarding whether digital reprinting (such as reprinting a print journal article on a Web site or CD-ROM) of materials for which publishers had obtained only "reproduction" rights consitutes infringement. While publishers have argued that the digital versions of publications are merely reproductions of the original work, many authors claim that these media represent "derivative works" for which additional permission and royalties are due.

» Special circumstances

In very particular circumstances, intellectual property rights don't have to be specifically transferred, as in a work for hire situation between employers and employees. However, content developers should be sure to obtain contracted rights for any materials commissioned for course development.

Works that are considered to be in the public domain are not afforded copyright protection. These include those works on which the copyright protection period has expired and some works developed for the public with government subsidy.