the motion picture as "An A&O Corporation Production." The application will be accepted.
• An applicant names Drew Corporation as the producer and Mary Crowson as the director and writer of a motion picture. The applicant checks the box indicating that Mary's contribution was a work made for hire. Drew Corporation is named as the
sole claimant, and no transfer statement is provided. The registration specialist will communicate with the applicant to determine if Mary is an author of this work. Because the work made for hire box was checked "yes" and because Mary was not named as a co-claimant, it seems likely that Drew Corporation is the sole author and that Mary created the work for that company as a work made for hire.
• An applicant names Barry Monroe as the author and the work made for hire question is answered "yes." XYZ Corporation is named as the claimant and there is no transfer statement. The registration specialist will communicate with the applicant to determine if Barry is an author of this work. Because there is no transfer statement, it seems likely that XYZ Corporation is the sole author and that Barry created the work for that company as a work made for hire.
For a general discussion of works made for hire, see Chapter 500, Section 506. For guidance in completing the work made for hire portion of the application, see Chapter 600, Section 614.
808.10(A)(2) Work Made for Hire Authorship and Foreign Motion Pictures
The copyright laws of many foreign countries do not include a work made for hire provision. Therefore, the registration specialist may communicate with the applicant if the applicant names an individual as the author of a foreign theatrical motion picture but does not indicate that the work was "made for hire."
808.10(A)(3) Joint Authorship
Under the Copyright Act, most motion pictures that are not works made for hire are considered joint works. As described in Section 801.6, a "joint work" is "a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole." 17 U.S.C. § 101. For instance, the screenwriter, director, and cinematographer may be joint authors of a motion picture absent any agreement and assuming they each contributed a sufficient amount of original authorship to the work. The authors of a joint work are co-owners of the copyright in the entire work. In such cases, the authors' contributions are not subject to separate registrations.
For a general discussion of joint works, see Chapter 500, Section 505.
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