Legal Definitions - author

In legal terms, particularly within copyright law, an author is the individual or entity responsible for creating an original work. This work must be independently conceived and possess at least a minimal level of creativity, meaning it wasn't simply copied from another source.

While we commonly associate authors with writers of books or articles, the legal definition is much broader. It encompasses creators of various expressive works, including music, visual art, software code, architectural designs, and dramatic performances. A crucial distinction arises when a work is created by an employee as part of their job duties, or by an independent contractor under a specific "work made for hire" agreement. In such cases, the employer or the commissioning party is legally considered the author, even if they didn't physically create the work themselves.

Being recognized as the author confers significant exclusive rights, such as the ability to reproduce, distribute, display, or perform the work, and to create derivative works based on it.

• Example 1: Individual Creator (Musical Composition)

  A musician spends months composing a new symphony, writing all the musical scores and arrangements herself. She records the symphony and plans to release it to the public.

  Explanation: The musician is the legal author of the symphony because she independently created the original musical work, demonstrating her own creative expression. This authorship grants her the copyright to her composition, allowing her to control its distribution and performance.

• Example 2: Work Made for Hire (Employee - Software Development)

  A software engineer, employed full-time by a technology company, develops a new algorithm for the company's proprietary data analytics platform during his regular working hours.

  Explanation: Even though the engineer physically wrote the code for the algorithm, the technology company is legally considered the author. This is because the work was created by an employee within the scope of their employment, making it a "work made for hire" under copyright law. The company, as the author, holds all copyright ownership for that algorithm.

• Example 3: Work Made for Hire (Contractor - Architectural Design)

  A property development firm hires an independent architect to design a unique, custom-built residential complex. Their contract explicitly states that the architectural plans and renderings will be considered a "work made for hire."

  Explanation: Despite the architect being the creative mind behind the blueprints and visual designs, the property development firm is the legal author. The "work made for hire" clause in their agreement transfers authorship and copyright ownership from the architect to the commissioning party, the development firm, for that specific architectural design.