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Work for Hire
- One common exception to the general rule that a creator automatically has copyright in their works is called “work-for-hire”
- If you are an employee, or otherwise under contract to a person or corporation or other employer, your contract may stipulate that some or all of what you create “on company time” belongs to your employer, not you.
- For example, as an employee of the University of California, if I create a guide to copyrights, it belongs to the Regents of the University of California. On the other hand, research or teaching materials belong to the researcher or instructor.
- An author, or their heirs, may reclaim the copyright 35-40 years after the copyright date. This is also sometimes referred to as copyright reversion. This can apply to work-for-hire or toworks whose copyright had been trasferred from the creator to a publisher. For more details see, Intellectual Property Restoration Act of . of 2013. Forms for restoration of copyright are available at the U.S. Copyright Offfice website.