Copyright and Collective Authorship: Locating the Authors of Collaborative Work(Series Number 50 Cambridge Intellectual Property and Information Law)

As technology makes it easier for people to work together, large-scale collaboration is becoming increasingly prevalent. In this context, the question of how to determine authorship – and hence ownership - of copyright in collaborative works is an important question to which current copyright law fails to provide a coherent or consistent answer. In Copyright and Collective Authorship, Daniela Simone engages with the problem of how to determine the authorship of highly collaborative works. Employing insights from the ways in which collaborators understand and regulate issues of authorship, the book argues that a recalibration of copyright law is necessary, proposing an inclusive and contextual approach to joint authorship that is true to the legal concept of authorship but is also more aligned with creative reality.

Table of Contents:
1. Copyright law and collective authorship; 2. Authorship and joint authorship; 3. Wikipedia; 4. Australian Indigenous art; 5. Scientific collaborations; 6. Film; 7. Characteristics of collective authorship and the role of copyright law; 8. An inclusive, contextual approach to the joint authorship test.

About the Author :
Daniela Simone is a Lecturer in Law at University College London, where she is also a Co-Director of the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law. Dr Simone holds BC.L., M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees from the University of Oxford. She was awarded a B.A./LL.B. (Hons I) degree from the University of Sydney, was admitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales and worked as a lawyer for a global commercial law firm in Sydney.

Review :
'Cited by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in Kogan v Martin [2019] EWCA 1645.' 'Dr Daniela Simone identifies root causes of the deficiencies in the law's treatment of (joint) authorship, and provides an admirable roadmap and analytical framework to orient the judiciary and all others concerned about ascertaining who should be the authors of collective works … A must-read for anyone interested in the interaction between law and the creative process. This book made me think differently about copyright law and what it promotes and values when it comes to (not) recognizing those who contribute to the creation of works.' Pascale Chapdelaine, Intellectual Property Journal 'By and large, the book makes a compelling case for taking collaborative creativity seriously in the long-lasting process of the modernisation of copyright law … also a valuable input for further evidence-based research on the effectiveness of co-authorship rules at national, supranational and international level.' Giulia Priora, European Intellectual Property Review