Joint authorship
[3] This problem relating to joint authorship is not specifically dealt with by other international agreements as well, like the UCC, TRIPS, and the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996.
[12] However, in Gaiman v. McFarlane, where the issue of joint authorship was on the creation of new characters for an existing comic series, the court held that there will be joint-authorship even though the author's contribution was not independently copyrightable.
[13] While in this case, recent decisions holding that individual contribution must be independently copyrightable were not explicitly overruled, they were distinguished on facts.
[8] There have also been situations wherein the parties shared a pre-concerted intent that their works be merged into one, and yet the court did not grant joint authorship.
[7][15] After working as a screenwriter on the feature film, National Lampoon's TV: The Movie, Amir Cyrus Ahanchian filed a case for breach of an implied contract, copyright infringement, and unfair competition in violation of the Lanham Act against distributor Xenon Pictures, Inc., producer CKrush, Inc., director and writer Sam Maccarone, and Preston Lacy, a writer and actor in the film.
Taylor mainly contributed ideas regarding the portrayal of characters in the play and also provided research on the life of "Moms" Mabley.
[22] As a response to a suit for infringement by Childress, Taylor claimed that she was a joint author of the script and hence had equal rights in it.
[23] The court held that Taylor was not a joint author of the script due to lack of contribution of sufficient expression.
[24] In another case wherein both the participants had contributed expression, the court denied joint authorship status due to lack of requisite intent.
In this particular case, Jonathan Larson, the author, had written the original play and was having it produced by the New York Theatre Workshop ("NYTW").
[26] Lynn Thomson, who was a literature professor at New York University, was hired to help shape and form the plot.
[27] However, not long after the dress rehearsal, Larson died and Thomson filled in his shoes and concluded the book to be used for the musical.
At this stage, Thomson was yet to sign a waiver which would entail her handing over any copyright interest in the concluded work.
The court reiterated the precedent established by Childress, rejecting Thomson's argument that the requirement of intention needs to be met with only in a situation where an author's contributions are minimal.
[29] The court held that in order to be characterized as a joint author, an individual must show two things: first, that he or she produced independent copyright material within the context of the creative process and second, that both individual authors exhibited mutual intent to create the joint work.
A joint author can sign a written statement in compliance with Section 204(a) to alter his ownership shares he is initially vested with.
[44] The plaintiff obtained an injunction restraining defendants from breaking seals of covers of the complete book India Wins Freedom and from making its contents known to the public.
[46] Hence, the defendants were allowed to break the seals of the covers of the complete book India Wins Freedom and make its contents known to the public.
