Generally, if you made it, you own the copyright – even if you don’t own the physical thing itself. The authors of the work are the default owners in a work. That means that I can pay you to paint a wonderful portrait of my dog being queen of the neighborhood. I own the painting, but you own the copyright. You can make cards (and money) from my regal beagle. If I don’t like that, I better put it in writing what I want to own and what I don’t want you to do.
I could say that I own the painting and the copyright, and you, the painter, no longer have any rights. Or we could work out a deal where you have some rights and I have some.
What does “owning” a copyright mean?
The owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
- to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
- to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
- to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
- in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
- in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
- in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
We can tease those rights out between us. Maybe I own the copyright, but I let you make copies of the portrait to put on coffee mugs for a share of the profits. Or maybe I only let you show the portrait as an example of your work. Or maybe you retain ownership, but you promise to not sell copies of it to any self-professed cat lovers. Or maybe you can sell all the posters you want, but I get the rights to the sure-to-be-glorious screenplay.
Whatever we decide, we will want it in writing. The ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or in part, but a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed. So as with many things, let’s get it in writing – especially any promise to let you join me on the red carpet at the premiere.