Copyright My Monkey!
Dennis Knox
Offshore Energy Construction & Installation Professional: Creative & Innovative Solutions to Offshore Project Challenges
Do you understand copyright? If you don’t and you are in business you could be setting yourself up for problems in the future. Now I am not a copyright expert but I have had some experience in dealing with this subject.
Essentially, an item of creative construction, be it a couple of pieces of steel welded together, a detailed pencil portrait, a childish smudge on paper, a poem, a photograph, whatever it may be, becomes copyright of the creator the moment it is made. If any other person takes that image and reproduces it in any way they are in breach of copyright. So, virtually every image, logo or design you google will have a copyright owner somewhere and if you want to use the image or a part of it or a variation of it you need the owner’s permission.
A wildlife photographer sets up a camera in the jungle allows a monkey to touch the camera and take a selfie. Who owns the copyright? The photographer who owns the camera or the monkey?
The answer may seem obvious, after all, how can a monkey own anything? But the reality is the copyright vests in the creator of the image so, technically, yes, the monkey is the creator and owns the copyright. But can an animal have legal ownership? That question is at the heart of this ongoing battle.
But, if you are in business you must be careful of this principle, “The creator is the owner of the copyright”.
If you get your logo designed on Fiverr, or outsource your web design, the copyright on all artwork and design belongs to the designer, not you. So, one day, when your brand is famous and valuable that designer can demand a share for their copyright. Not an issue if the designer is an employee, but it definitely is if it is outsourced. Paying them for the work does not make the design yours, and even if the designer is dead, the rights vest in their estate for 70 years after their death.
So, be careful when you outsource anything that could be copyrighted, make sure your contract clearly states that the copyright belongs to you!
Subsea EPCI, DW SURF installation. Floating asset T&I
8 年Thanks for your article Dennis, the monkey's copyright remains valid internationally also. VBR, Rod
Ocean enthusiast, innovator, explorer
8 年Worth noting too that even if you own the copyright through legal copyright transfer, authorship is not transferable. For example if publishing an image you own and had commissioned, you would have to list the originator/author of the image if citing an "image credit" caption, not the owner.