Copyright eBook: Appendix | South Africa
Mistake 1 - Thinking you own copyright if you pay someone to produce work for you.
Copyright in a literary, musical or artistic work generally belongs to the author of the work.
If a person is paid, or agrees to be paid, for a piece of work, the person who commissioned the work shall own the copyright.
Mistake 2 - assuming using freelancers is the same as using employees.
If someone creates a work during the course of his or her employment, under a contract of service, copyright belongs to the employer.
When a person has been commissioned and paid to do a particular piece of work, the copyright belongs to the commissioner.
Mistake 3 - not understanding that joint ownership could leave you in a stalemate situation.
Work of joint authorship means a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of each author is not separable from the contribution of the other author or authors.
There is no mention of how ownership of the work is split or whether agreement is needed by all authors to exploit copyright.
Need to Register Copyright?
For most works (except for films) it is not possible to apply for copyright protection as it automatically exists - copyright arises as you express your ideas on the page. Copyright for films / videos made for commercial use needs to be applied for formally, by way of special documentation.
Assignment Formalities
Copyright can be transferred, but this must be done in writing and signed by the person transferring copyright.
