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Copyright: Work-for-Hire

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.
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