Smriti, Chanakya National Law University
ABSTRACT
Under copyright, the principal owner of the work is the author, who controls all kinds of rights provided under copyright. However, it is not always the case that there is only one author of a particular work. Due to gradual development and specialization in most of the fields, intellectual collaboration has become inevitable for the purpose of creation of literary, academic, dramatic, musical, or cinematographic works. Consequently, a large chunk of such works is created jointly by more than one author.
This situation gives rise to the question that how does copyright come into play when there is more than one author. The Copyright Act, 1957 makes provision for joint ownership of copyright. A work of joint authorship has been defined under Section 2(z) of the Copyright Act as “a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of one author is not distinct from the contribution of the other author or authors.” This means that the copyright can be owned by multiple persons if the copyrighted work has been produced in collaboration by those persons. Joint ownership in copyright under the copyright act is created when two or more authors produce a creative work while working in collaboration intending to put their individual works together in a way to create inseparable or related parts. The doctrine of joint authorship decides the nature of rights available to the authors and their inter-relationship. This doctrine entails sharing of the rights between the joint authors. However, the issue of joint authorship is not simple and has various unsettled legal aspects. In India, the judiciary is yet to fully consolidate the position of law on the aspect of determination of ‘active and close intellectual collaboration.’ Determination of this aspect is essential to resolve any dispute relating to joint authorship.
