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LSDefine
Simple English definitions for legal terms
collective work
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A quick definition of collective work:
Collective work is when many different pieces of work are put together to make one big work, like a magazine or a book. Each piece of work is its own thing, but when they are put together, they make something new. In copyright law, the person who made each piece of work owns the copyright for that piece, but the person who put all the pieces together owns the copyright for the whole thing. This means that if someone wants to use just one piece of work from the collective work, they need to get permission from the person who made that piece, but if they want to use the whole thing, they need to get permission from the person who put it all together.
A more thorough explanation:
Collective work refers to a type of work that is made up of separate and independent contributions from different authors. Examples of collective works include magazines, anthologies, and encyclopedias.
In copyright law, a contribution to a collective work is not the same as the copyright to the collective work as a whole. Each separate contribution has its own copyright, which belongs to the author of that contribution. The copyright to the collective work as a whole belongs to the collective author, but only extends to the creative material contributed by that author, not to any preexisting material used in the work.
For example, if a freelance author writes an article for a magazine, the author owns the copyright to that article. However, the magazine as a whole also has a copyright, which belongs to the publisher. The publisher's copyright only covers the creative material contributed by the publisher, such as the layout and design of the magazine, not the author's article.
Another example of a collective work is an anthology of short stories. Each individual story has its own copyright, which belongs to the author of that story. The copyright to the anthology as a whole belongs to the editor or publisher, but only covers the creative material contributed by them, such as the selection and arrangement of the stories.