December 18th, 2007
When Do Independent Contractors Own A Copyright On Their Work?
Recently, several different potential copyright clients inquiring whether they had a case for intentional copyright violation of their work have approached me. They all had similar stories. They worked as volunteers, interns or independent contractors for various companies. While working with those companies, they each created an original work in a tangible medium. They were not paid for their work, but rather were promised some sort of credit for their work, either in the form of college credits, or promotion of their name with the work. In each case, the other party did not deliver the promised consideration. As such, the potential client’s believed they had a copyright on the work they created, and further believed they could sue for copyright violation.