On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, John Saeger wrote:
> >For the record, I believe all creative property belongs to the creator,
> >and that the creator has no obligation to the public to make his/her
> >creations available, or keep them 'in print' or anything else.
>
> Obviously this is ridiculous, not if one is paid for one's time. In that
> case, it's up to the owner of the property, i.e. whoever paid you, to decide
> what happens to the property.
Pardon me, I should have been more specific. If the creator of the work
is acting in the capacity of an employee, the employer owns the creative
property. While I'm not crazy about work-for-hire because a lot of people
in the music and comic-book industry (among others) have been screwed
because they didn't understand it, I think it has its place. As for
contracting, the current legal trend is (in the event of dispute)
generally for copyright to be awarded to the contractor unless a written
agreement specifically designates the labor as work-for-hire. However,
when contracting, always cover your butt with a written agreement just to
be sure!
Anyhow, I was generalizing and talking about creator-owned works. For
those who may be interested, copyright for employer-owned works is for a
term of 75 years from the date of creation instead of 50 years after the
death of the author.
Note: I am not a lawyer! This is not legal advice!
***Mike St. Clair***mstclair@xxxxxxxxx***irc:SaintMick***
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