Hired work is a type of contract where a person agrees to do a job for an employer or client in exchange for payment. The work becomes the property of the client, who can use it without further compensation. Freelancers who sign these contracts waive their rights as authors.
Hired work, also called contract work, is a term used to describe a type of contract. When a person signs this type of contract, he or she agrees to do a particular job for an employer or client. In exchange for the work he is hired to do, he receives a sum of money. The work he created becomes the property of the client or employer.
An example of a work-for-hire situation is where a writer goes to work for a company. He can sign a work-for-hire contract, agreeing to write 10 essays a week for the employer in exchange for an hourly or project-based compensation amount. Each of the 10 essays he creates per week then becomes the property of the company that hired him. The writer retains none of the rights he would normally have as the author of those essays.
Quite often, work-for-hire contracts are discussed in terms of freelancing. For example, an individual or business might want to complete five pieces of art. Instead of giving credit to the artist for creating the artwork in such a case, the client can present an employment contract for hire. This contract sets out the specifications that the client has for the artwork and the rights that he is to receive.
With a hired work contract, the client becomes the legal author of the work. He can use it in several ways without asking the creator’s permission or providing any kind of royalty payment. If the customer decides to duplicate and sell the work to others, for example, a rental work agreement may allow him to do so without paying the artist further compensation. Sometimes a customer will give credit to the creator of the work, but the customer still owns the copyright. A freelancer who signs this type of contract often waives the same rights as an employee.
Any type of contract can include terms that require a creator to give up some or all of their rights to their work. A regular contract, however, does not automatically grant the customer the right to take credit for the writer’s or artist’s work. It must specify which rights the client has and those not mentioned are automatically assigned to the author of the work. A rental contract, on the other hand, gives the customer the automatic right to take credit and secure the copyright for the work, without asking for permission.
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