Collective works involve contributions from multiple artists and have specific copyright laws. Artists can sign away their rights or grant one-off use for a fee. There are two forms of collective copyrights, one for the compiler and one for individual contributors. It is important to know the laws of the country and seek legal guidance when creating a collective work.
A collective work typically refers to a written or otherwise recorded work that features the contributions of multiple artists. Examples of this might include an anthology of short stories or poems, a novel written by multiple people, and a CD or other recording containing songs composed and performed by multiple artists. The reason this term needs to be understood from a legal standpoint is because many countries have specific rules on the copyright status of collected works.
There are several ways to approach the assembly of a collective work. One of them is asking artists to sign away the rights to reproduce their work in the future. They could do this for a set amount of money, and the person assembling the work would then have full rights to reproduce each individual work in any way in the future. The artist would no longer have these rights.
As you can imagine, this approach is not very popular because the artist gives up the rights to use his work or to profit from it in the future. What most often happens instead is that the artist grants the compiler of the collective work the one-off use of the work for a specific publication. This can be a free use or it could be associated with a monetary fee. For the artist to be sure of her rights, he has to do more than grant permission for a one-off use. He also has to make sure he has an individual copyright.
In fact, there are two forms of collective copyrights that help establish ownership and rights. The person or persons compiling the work owns the copyright to the entire collective work, while individual contributors get protection for their contributions. It is worth reiterating that these laws differ from region to region and it is important for people to know the laws of the country where they live.
A copyright to the compiler speaks of the arrangement that the person has made of the collected work; someone else cannot take the same poems, short stories or other works and arrange them in the same way also taking advantage of any comments, notes or personal works of the compiler. An individual copyright covers only the contributions of a single artist, allowing artists to reproduce their work for profit in the future. Individual artists have no right, unless agreed, to derive money from the collective work or to reproduce the collective work. These rights are exclusively granted to the compiler/arranger.
In countries like the United States, laws state that the individual always owns the copyright unless the transfer of ownership can be proven. Most lawyers advise people not to hope for this law to work effectively and recommend potential contributors to obtain personal copyrights. Copyright lawyers also suggest that anyone planning to put together a collective work seek legal guidance in completing the required forms. Some regions allow you to apply without the help of an attorney, but the complexities of copyright law suggest that seeking assistance could be one way to minimize future problems.
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