Example:
• Wendy Genoa is a website designer who works as an independent contractor. Val Miller hired Wendy to create a website for his small business. Wendy created the copyrightable backgrounds, banners, and other graphics for the website, as well as the selection, coordination, and arrangement of the pages of the site. Val submits an application to register the website naming himself as the author and claimant. The deposit copies clearly indicate that Wendy contributed copyrightable authorship to the work and the application contains no transfer statement. The registration specialist will communicate with the applicant, because Wendy appears to be the author of this content and Val does not appear to be the proper claimant unless there was a valid transfer of ownership via a signed written agreement.
For further information on issues involving the ownership of a website or website content, see Section 1004.
1003.3 Copyrightable Content Contained in or Added to a Website
Websites often contain contributions that constitute separate and independent works in themselves, such as text, photographs, videos, sound recordings, and the like. In such cases, the website is typically a form of collective work in which a number of component works are selected, coordinated, and/or arranged into a collective whole, while the components works typically are contributions to the collective work.
The creator of the website may be the author and owner of the website as a whole, while another party or parties may be the author(s) and owner(s) of particular works contained within the site. In many cases, multiple applications may be required to register the copyright in all the works contained within a website, unless there has been a valid transfer of ownership for the copyright interest in each of the component works (assuming those works were not previously published or registered].
1003.4 User Generated Content (UGC)
Many websites allow users to post content that they created, such as comments, reviews, photographs, or videos. This type of material is known as user generated content ("UGC").
As a general rule, the user is the author of any original expression that he or she creates and posts to a website, and the user owns the copyright in that material unless he or she transfers ownership of all the exclusive rights to the website owner pursuant to a valid, signed, written transfer of ownership.
For more information on ownership issues involving UGC, see Section 1005.
Chapter 1000 : 8
12/22/2014
