Contributions to a Collective Work: Who Owns the Pieces Inside a Magazine Anthology or Journal

36 questions on contributions to a collective work, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Can a freelance contribution be a work made for hire?
• Can termination rights be waived by contract, and do they reach works made for hire?
• Does a publisher's registration of the collective work cover the freelancers' contributions?
• How did freelance contracts change after Tasini?
• How does a contributor register a single contribution to a collective work?
• How does a publisher acquire rights beyond the default privilege?
• How does the collective-work framework apply to newspapers and periodicals?
• How does the framework apply to academic and scientific journals?
• How does the framework apply to anthologies and edited collections?
• How does the framework apply to compilation albums and label samplers?
• How does the framework apply to websites and user-generated content?
• Is a page-faithful digital archive of back issues a permissible “revision”?
• What are the copyright notice rules for a collective work?
• What are the key takeaways on ownership inside a collective work?
• What can't a publisher do under the Section 201(c) default privilege?
• What cautions apply when relying on the “revision” privilege for a digital archive?
• What did New York Times v. Tasini decide?
• What did Tasini not hold?
• What does a publisher's copyright in a collective work actually cover?
• What happens when a freelancer signs an “all rights, in perpetuity” contract?
• What happens when a freelancer signs nothing but an invoice?
• What happens when a magazine digitizes its entire archive?
• What is a collective work, and how is it different from an ordinary compilation?
• What is a compilation under copyright law?
• What is a work made for hire, and how does it change the collective-work analysis?
• What is group registration of contributions to periodicals?
• What is the copyright termination right, and when does the window open?
• What is the difference between a collective work and a derivative work?
• What is the difference between an assignment and a work-made-for-hire designation?
• What is the Section 201(c) default privilege?
• What is the working test for whether a reproduction is a permissible “revision”?
• What should a contributor do before placing a piece with a publisher?
• What should a publisher do when assembling a collective work?
• When is a contributor an “employee” for work-made-for-hire purposes?
• Who owns the copyright in an individual article inside a magazine?
• Why should a contributor register their own copyright?