This is an accepted version of this page
58-607: Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography . Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome, Au=Austria, AH=Austria/Hungary, Ca=Canada, En=England, Fl=Finland, Fr=France, Ge=Germany, Id=Indonesia, In=India, Ir=Ireland, Is=Israel, Jp=Japan, Nw=Norway, SA=South Africa, Sc=Scotland, SL=Sierra Leone, So=Somalia, Sp=Spain, Sw=Sweden, TT=Trinidad & Tobago, US=United States, Ve=Venezuela, Wl=Wales Author In legal discourse, an author
116-623: A work for hire (e.g., hired to write a city tour guide by a municipal government that totally owns the copyright to the finished work), or when writing material using intellectual property owned by others (such as when writing a novel or screenplay that is a new installment in an already established media franchise). In the United States, the Copyright Clause of the Constitution of the United States ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 ) provides
174-471: A Member State provides for the possibility of a legal person to be the original rightholder, then the duration of protection is in general the same as the copyright term for a personal copyright: i.e., for a literary or artistic work, 70 years from the death of the human author, or in the case of works of joint authorship, 70 years from the death of the last surviving author. If the natural author or authors are not identified, nor become known subsequently, then
232-431: A certain number of copies had sold. In Canada, this practice occurred during the 1890s, but was not commonplace until the 1920s. Established and successful authors may receive advance payments, set against future royalties, but this is no longer common practice. Most independent publishers pay royalties as a percentage of net receipts – how net receipts are calculated varies from publisher to publisher. Under this arrangement,
290-461: A certain time. It enters the public domain , where it can be used without limit. Copyright laws in many jurisdictions – mostly following the lead of the United States, in which the entertainment and publishing industries have very strong lobbying power – have been amended repeatedly since their inception, to extend the length of this fixed period where the work is exclusively controlled by the copyright holder. Technically, someone owns their work from
348-417: A different way: usually a set fee or a per word rate rather than on a percentage of sales. In the year 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 130,000 people worked in the country as authors, making an average of $ 61,240 per year. Work for hire A work made for hire ( work for hire or WFH ), in copyright law in the United States , is a work that is subject to copyright and
406-580: A government scheme such as the ELR (educational lending right) and PLR (public lending right) schemes in Australia. Under these schemes, authors are paid a fee for the number of copies of their books in educational and/or public libraries. These days, many authors supplement their income from book sales with public speaking engagements, school visits, residencies, grants, and teaching positions. Ghostwriters , technical writers, and textbooks writers are typically paid in
464-494: A hiring party ( copyright transfer agreement ), a hiring party often finds that it has only limited scope to alter, update, or transform the work. For example, a motion picture may hire dozens of creators of copyrightable works (e.g., music scores, scripts, sets, sound effects, costumes) any one of which would require repeated agreements with the creators if conditions for showing the film or creating derivatives of it changed. Failing to reach agreement with any one creator could prevent
522-575: A nature photographer. The photographer asserted authorship of the photographs, which the United States Copyright Office denied, stating: "To qualify as a work of 'authorship' a work must be created by a human being". More recently, questions have arisen as to whether images or text created by a generative artificial intelligence have an author. Holding the title of "author" over any "literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, [or] certain other intellectual works" gives rights to this person,
580-401: A part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. (17 U.S.C. § 101) The first situation applies only when the work's creator
638-522: A transfer of rights, the creator can hold back the rights until all terms of the contract are fulfilled. Holding back the rights can be a forceful tool when it is necessary to compel a commissioning party to fulfill its obligations. An author has the inalienable right to terminate a copyright transfer 35 years after agreeing to permanently relinquish the copyright. However, according to the US Copyright Office, Circular 9 "the termination provisions of
SECTION 10
#1732851004599696-416: A work does not have to be sought in the one who produced it, "as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us." The psyche, culture, fanaticism of an author can be disregarded when interpreting a text, because the words are rich enough themselves with all of the traditions of language. To expose meanings in
754-494: A work is the legally-recognized author of that work. In the United States and certain other copyright jurisdictions, if a work is "made for hire", the employer, not the employee, is considered the legal author. In some countries, this is known as corporate authorship . The entity serving as an employer may be a corporation or other legal entity, an organization, or an individual. Accreditation has no impact on work for hire in
812-448: A written work and producing the interpretation or meaning in a written work that both Barthes and Foucault are interested in. Foucault warns of the risks of keeping the author's name in mind during interpretation, because it could affect the value and meaning with which one handles an interpretation. Literary critics Barthes and Foucault suggest that readers should not rely on or look for the notion of one overarching voice when interpreting
870-436: A written work without appealing to the celebrity of an author, their tastes, passions, vices, is, to Barthes, to allow language to speak, rather than author. Michel Foucault argues in his essay "What is an author?" (1969) that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He states that "a private letter may have a signatory—it does not have an author." For a reader to assign the title of author upon any written work
928-537: A written work, because of the complications inherent with a writer's title of "author." They warn of the dangers interpretations could suffer from when associating the subject of inherently meaningful words and language with the personality of one authorial voice. Instead, readers should allow a text to be interpreted in terms of the language as "author." Self-publishing is a model where the author takes full responsibility and control of arranging financing, editing, printing, and distribution of their own work. In other words,
986-429: Is a work for hire is not enough. Any agreement not meeting all of the above criteria is not a valid work for hire agreement and all rights to the work will remain with the creator. Further, courts have held that the agreement must be negotiated, though not signed, before the work begins. Retroactive contractual designation as a work for hire is not permitted. When relying on agreements in which creators transfer rights to
1044-510: Is an employee, not an independent contractor. The determination of whether an individual is an employee for the purposes of the work made for hire doctrine is determined under the common law of agency, in which a court looks to a multitude of factors to determine whether an employer-employee relationship exists. In the Supreme Court case affirming that the common law of agency should be used to distinguish employees from independent contractors in
1102-460: Is created by employees as part of their job or some limited types of works for which all parties agree in writing to the WFH designation. Work for hire is a statutorily defined term ( 17 U.S.C. § 101 ) and so a work for hire is not created merely because parties to an agreement state that the work is a work for hire. It is an exception to the general rule that the person who actually creates
1160-399: Is not one of harmony and neutrality. In particular for the writer, their authorship in their work makes their work part of their identity, and there is much at stake personally over the negotiation of authority over that identity. However, it is the editor who has "the power to impose the dominant definition of the writer and therefore to delimit the population of those entitled to take part in
1218-435: Is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work is in written, graphic, or recorded medium. The creation of such a work is an act of authorship . Thus, a sculptor , painter , or composer , is an author of their respective sculptures, paintings, or compositions, even though in common parlance, an author is often thought of as the writer of a book , article , play , or other written work . In
SECTION 20
#17328510045991276-418: Is to attribute certain standards upon the text which, for Foucault, are working in conjunction with the idea of "the author function." Foucault's author function is the idea that an author exists only as a function of a written work, a part of its structure, but not necessarily part of the interpretive process. The author's name "indicates the status of the discourse within a society and culture," and at one time
1334-560: The Windows operating system , which is credited simply to Microsoft Corporation. By contrast, Adobe Systems lists many of the developers of Photoshop in its credits. In both cases, the software is the property of the employing company. In both cases, the actual creators have moral rights. Similarly, newspapers routinely credit news articles written by their staff, and publishers credit the writers and illustrators who produce comic books featuring characters such as Batman or Spider-Man , but
1392-512: The Congress with the power of "securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries". The language regarding authors was derived from proposals by Charles Pinckney , "to secure to authors exclusive rights for a limited time", and by James Madison , "to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time", or, in the alternative, "to encourage, by proper premiums & Provisions,
1450-455: The German copyright law, editions as the result of scholarly or scientific analysis have a copyright length of 25 years. Therefore, the editor of an urtext score of an opera by Beethoven would only receive 25 years of protection, but the arrangement of the full orchestral part for piano would receive a full 70 year protection – timed from the publication of the piano arrangement and not the death of
1508-643: The US. The actual creator may or may not be publicly credited for the work, and this credit does not affect its legal status. States that are party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works recognize separately copyrights and moral rights , with moral rights including the right of the actual creators to publicly identify themselves as such, and to maintain the integrity of their work. For example, Microsoft hired many programmers to develop
1566-603: The advancement of useful knowledge and discoveries". Both proposals were referred to the Committee of Detail , which reported back a proposal containing the final language, which was incorporated into the Constitution by unanimous agreement of the convention. In literary theory, critics find complications in the term author beyond what constitutes authorship in a legal setting. In the wake of postmodern literature , critics such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault have examined
1624-407: The author also acts as the publisher of their work. With commissioned publishing, the publisher makes all the publication arrangements and the author covers all expenses. The author of a work may receive a percentage calculated on a wholesale or a specific price or a fixed amount on each book sold. Publishers, at times, reduced the risk of this type of arrangement, by agreeing only to pay this after
1682-410: The author does not pay anything towards the expense of publication. The costs and financial risk are all carried by the publisher, who will then take the greatest percentage of the receipts. See Compensation for more. Vanity publishers normally charge a flat fee for arranging publication, offer a platform for selling, and then take a percentage of the sale of every copy of a book. The author receives
1740-475: The authors retain those copyrights in their work not granted to the publisher. The circumstances in which a work is considered a "work made for hire" is determined by the United States Copyright Act of 1976 as either (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work , as
1798-421: The book sales are not the publishers' main source of income, but instead the fees that the authors are charged to initially produce the book are. Because of this, the vanity publishers need not invest in making books marketable as much as other publishers need to. This leads to low quality books being introduced to the market. The relationship between the author and the editor , often the author's only liaison to
List of biographers - Misplaced Pages Continue
1856-432: The case of a work for hire , the employer or commissioning party is considered the author of the work, even if they did not write or otherwise create the work, but merely instructed another individual to do so. Typically, the first owner of a copyright is the person who created the work, i.e. the author. If more than one person created the work, then a case of joint authorship takes place. Copyright laws differ around
1914-405: The city has lost out on the potential to create merchandise and souvenirs from one of its most iconic landmarks. An author can grant his or her copyright (if any) to the hiring party. However, if not a work made for hire, the author or the author's heirs may exercise their right to terminate the grant. Termination of a grant cannot be effective until 35 years after the execution of the grant or, if
1972-481: The city of Portland, Oregon. Unlike most works of public art, Kaskey has put strong prohibitions on the use of images of the statue, located atop the main entrance to the famous Portland Building . He sued Paramount Pictures for including shots of the statue in the Madonna motion picture Body of Evidence . As a result, it is nearly impossible to film portions of one of downtown Portland's most vibrant neighborhoods, and
2030-421: The copyright term is the same as that for an anonymous or pseudonymous work, i.e. 70 years from publication for a literary or artistic work; or, if the work has not been published in that time, 70 years from creation. (Copyright durations for works created before 1993 may be subject to transitional arrangements.) An exception is for scientific or critical editions of works in the public domain. Per article 70 of
2088-437: The focus from the reader-audience and putting a strain on the relationship between authors and editors and on writing as a social act. Even the book review by the editors has more significance than the readership's reception. Authors rely on advance fees, royalty payments, adaptation of work to a screenplay, and fees collected from giving speeches. A standard contract for an author will usually include provision for payment in
2146-488: The form of an advance and royalties. Usually, an author's book must earn the advance before any further royalties are paid. For example, if an author is paid a modest advance of $ 2000, and their royalty rate is 10% of a book priced at $ 20 – that is, $ 2 per book – the book will need to sell 1000 copies before any further payment will be made. Publishers typically withhold payment of a percentage of royalties earned against returns. In some countries, authors also earn income from
2204-519: The grant covers the right of publication, no earlier than 40 years after the execution of the grant or 35 years after publication under the grant (whichever comes first). The application of the law to materials such as lectures, textbooks, and academic articles produced by teachers is somewhat unclear. The near-universal practice in education has traditionally been to act on the assumption that they were not work for hire. Where start-up technology companies are concerned, some courts have considered that
2262-436: The instrumentalities and tools; the location of the work; the duration of the relationship between the parties; whether the hiring party has the right to assign additional projects to the hired party; the extent of the hired party's discretion over when and how long to work; the method of payment; the hired party's role in hiring and paying assistants; whether the hiring party is in business; the provision of employee benefits; and
2320-457: The law do not apply to works made for hire." These restrictions, in both the work for hire doctrine and the right of termination, exist out of recognition that artists frequently face unequal bargaining power in their business dealings. Nonetheless, failure to secure a work-for-hire agreement by commissioning organizations can create difficult situations. One such example is the artist Raymond Kaskey 's 1985 statue Portlandia , an iconic symbol of
2378-399: The owner of the copyright, especially the exclusive right to engage in or authorize any production or distribution of their work. Any person or entity wishing to use intellectual property held under copyright must receive permission from the copyright holder to use this work, and often will be asked to pay for the use of copyrighted material. The copyrights on intellectual work expire after
List of biographers - Misplaced Pages Continue
2436-479: The process of its production. Every line of written text is a mere reflection of references from any of a multitude of traditions, or, as Barthes puts it, "the text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centers of culture"; it is never original. With this, the perspective of the author is removed from the text, and the limits formerly imposed by the idea of one authorial voice, one ultimate and universal meaning, are destroyed. The explanation and meaning of
2494-408: The publishers hold copyrights to the work. However, articles published in academic journals, or work produced by freelancers for magazines, are not generally works created as a work for hire, which is why it is common for the publisher to require the copyright owner, the author, to sign a copyright transfer , a short legal document transferring specific author copyrights to the publisher. In this case
2552-498: The publishing company, is typically characterized as the site of tension. For the author to reach their audience, often through publication, the work usually must attract the attention of the editor. The idea of the author as the sole meaning-maker of necessity changes to include the influences of the editor and the publisher to engage the audience in writing as a social act. There are three principal kinds of editing: Pierre Bourdieu 's essay "The Field of Cultural Production" depicts
2610-405: The publishing industry as a "space of literary or artistic position-takings," also called the "field of struggles," which is defined by the tension and movement inherent among the various positions in the field. Bourdieu claims that the "field of position-takings [...] is not the product of coherence-seeking intention or objective consensus," meaning that an industry characterized by position-takings
2668-561: The recording studios. If a work is created by an employee, part 1 of the copyright code's definition of a work made for hire applies. To help determine who is an employee, the Supreme Court in CCNV v. Reid identified certain factors that characterize an "employer-employee" relationship as defined by agency law: In the United States a "work for hire" (published after 1978) receives copyright protection until 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever comes first. This differs from
2726-415: The rest of the money made. Most materials published this way are for niche groups and not for large audiences. Vanity publishing, or subsidy publishing, is stigmatized in the professional world. In 1983, Bill Henderson defined vanity publishers as people who would "publish anything for which an author will pay, usually at a loss for the author and a nice profit for the publisher." In subsidy publishing,
2784-568: The right to parody or satirize ), and many other interacting complications. Authors may portion out the different rights that they hold to different parties at different times, and for different purposes or uses, such as the right to adapt a plot into a film, television series, or video game. If another party chooses to adapt the work, they may have to alter plot elements or character names in order to avoid infringing previous adaptations. An author may also not have rights when working under contract that they would otherwise have, such as when creating
2842-461: The role and relevance of authorship to the meaning or interpretation of a literary text. Barthes challenges the idea that a text can be attributed to any single author. He writes, in his essay "Death of the Author" (1968), that "it is language which speaks, not the author." The words and language of a text itself determine and expose meaning for Barthes, and not someone possessing legal responsibility for
2900-421: The showing of the film entirely. To avoid this scenario, producers of motion pictures and similar works require that all contributions by non-employees be works made for hire. On the other hand, a work for hire agreement is less desirable for creators than a copyright transfer agreement. Under work for hire, the commissioning party owns all rights from the very start even if the contract is breached, whereas under
2958-457: The standard U.S. copyright term, life of the author plus 70 years, because the "author" of a work for hire is often not an actual person, in which case the standard term would be unlimited, which is unconstitutional. Works published prior to 1978 have no differentiation in copyright term between works made for hire and works with recognized individual creators. In the European Union , even if
SECTION 50
#17328510045993016-454: The struggle to define the writer". As "cultural investors," publishers rely on the editor position to identify a good investment in "cultural capital" which may grow to yield economic capital across all positions. According to the studies of James Curran, the system of shared values among editors in Britain has generated a pressure among authors to write to fit the editors' expectations, removing
3074-404: The tax treatment of the hired party. See Restatement § 220(2) (setting forth a non-exhaustive list of factors relevant to determining whether a hired party is an employee). On the other hand, if the work is created by an independent contractor or freelancer, the work may be considered a work for hire only if all of the following conditions are met: In other words, mutual agreement that a work
3132-411: The time it's created. A notable aspect of authorship emerges with copyright in that, in many jurisdictions, it can be passed down to another, upon one's death. The person who inherits the copyright is not the author, but has access to the same legal benefits. Intellectual property laws are complex. Works of fiction involve trademark law , likeness rights , fair use rights held by the public (including
3190-579: The traditional factors for finding that an author is an "employee" can be less important than in more-established companies, for example if the employee works remotely and is not directly supervised, or if the employee is paid entirely in equity without benefits or tax withholding. In 1999, a work for hire related amendment was inserted into the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999. It specified that sound recordings from musical artists could be categorized as works for hire from
3248-452: The work for hire context, Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid , the Court listed some of these factors: In determining whether a hired party is an employee under the general common law of agency, we consider the hiring party's right to control the manner and means by which the product is accomplished. Among the other factors relevant to this inquiry are the skill required; the source of
3306-417: The world. The United States Copyright Office , for example, defines copyright as "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of 'original works of authorship. ' " Some works are considered to be authorless. For example, the monkey selfie copyright dispute in the 2010s involved photographs taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to
3364-403: Was used as an anchor for interpreting a text, a practice which Barthes would argue is not a particularly relevant or valid endeavor. Expanding upon Foucault's position, Alexander Nehamas writes that Foucault suggests "an author [...] is whoever can be understood to have produced a particular text as we interpret it," not necessarily who penned the text. It is this distinction between producing
#598401