Do I own any rights in a screenplay I edited?

1 Answers

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   Aaron Hall, Minnesota Lawyer on Sep 15, 2011 Log in to Reply

   Under the facts you presented here, no one can use the version of the screenplay you created without your permission. I’ll explain the law behind this.

   The general rule is that an employee does not own the rights to any works created by the employee during the course of employment. However, an independent contractor or a person with no contract at all owns the copyright in any contribution made to a work.

   The contribution is called a derivative work, because it was built on top of the original work. A derivative work is a work based on or derived from one or more already existing works (art, screenplay, book, etc.). The person who created the derivative work owns the rights (copyright) in the derivative work.

   Since the derivative work is co-mingled with the original work, the derivative author cannot use the derivative work without permission from the owner of the original work. Likewise, the owner of the original work needs permission from the author of the derivative work to use the derivative work.

   So under the facts you presented here, no one can use the version of the screenplay you created without your permission. Unauthorized use would be copyright infringement.

   Aaron Hall
   http://minnesotaattorney.com/

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