With an official copyright registration on file, you're the undisputed legal owner of your intellectual property. But what if a company or individual wants to use that intellectual property, possibly for a website or for promotional material? Depending on the level of control over your work you'd like to retain, there are a variety of licenses and agreements that you can utilize to allow others to use your work.
Copyright Transfer Agreement
A copyright transfer agreement does just what it sounds like it does—it transfers the ownership of the copyright from one person to another. It's important to be sure, before signing a transfer agreement, that you're OK with signing away your rights to your intellectual property forever; unless the new copyright owner decides to transfer the ownership back to you someday or gives you some type of license to continue to use it, you have absolutely no rights to the work you've created after you've transferred the copyright to a new owner.
There are certain situations where a copyright transfer agreement makes the most sense. For example, if a band is made up of four members, and one of them decides to get out of the music business entirely, the four members might agree that the member leaving the band should sign his or her rights to the music over to the rest of the band (possibly for a flat fee) rather than continuing to be tied to the music. He or she will then not be entitled to any future revenue in association with that music.
Another situation where a copyright transfer agreement may be the best choice would be a situation where a business might contact a photographer or graphic designer with a request for exclusive use of a logo or image for promotional purposes. The logo might then become a trademark of the company (even unregistered trademarks enjoy some level of protection from unauthorized use), and the original artist may have no desire to remain in control of the intellectual property. Again, typically a flat fee is involved in the copyright transfer.
Copyright License
A copyright license is a way to allow someone else to use your work while you remain in control of your intellectual property. With a copyright license, there is no shift in copyright ownership; you remain the legal owner of the material.
A copyright license is an agreement between you and the party wishing to use your material that addresses the specific parameters and restrictions involved in the use of the intellectual property. For example, someone may wish to use your photograph in an advertisement for a specific product, for a specific length of time, or in exchange for a specific amount of money. Your copyright license would address these points. This license encompasses any and all allowed uses—if the advertisement continues to run after the allotted time without your permission, if the photograph is used to promote a product or service that was not in the license, or if anything else is done that is contrary to the terms of the license, the use would be in violation of the terms of the license and would be considered copyright infringement.
One interesting thing to note is that the terms of a copyright license do not need to involve a transfer of money to be legally binding. For example, it's common practice for software developers to release software to the public for free, and to specify in the license (which typically consumers agree to before they are allowed to download the product) that the code cannot be modified and the software must be attributed to the creator. Courts have long upheld the validity of these licenses by ruling in favor of the intellectual property owner if the terms are not met. If, for instance, the user agreed to a similar license, and then isolated a portion of the code and built their own software around it or failed to give proper credit, the terms of the license would have been violated.
Creative Commons License
The most flexible type of license, a Creative Commons license skips the step where the user has to obtain permission from the copyright owner by pre-authorizing a work for use by anyone who wishes to abide by the license. There are six types of licenses, each with certain restrictions—one type of license may allow a work to be used for any use, including commercial purposes, provided only that proper attribution is given; other licenses specify that any derivative works must also be released under the same type of license; still others disallow any commercial use at all.
Creative Commons licenses are permanent. If anyone obtains a copy of the work while under the license, they are free to use that work for the use specified by the license for perpetuity even if the intellectual property owner retracts the license immediately after.
So why would anyone want to release a work under a Creative Commons license? The philosophy of Creative Commons (a nonprofit agency) is that free use promotes creativity, innovation, and collaboration—something many people feel is suppressed by the stringent copyright infringement laws in place today. When artists are free to modify and expand on each other's works while giving credit where credit is due, everyone flourishes.
SOURCES:
- Creative Commons, About Creative Commons
Sarah Kolb - Business incorporation and copyright registration specialist. Freelance book editor. Senior content editor/writer.
