Add Checkmark To Legal Hawaii Copyright Assignment Forms For Free

Are copyrights transferable? Yes. Like any other property, all or part of the rights in a work may be transferred by the owner to another. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section "Transfer of Copyright," for a discussion of ownership.

When a person, typically the author, rightfully owns a copyright of a work, that right is not extinguished upon death. Instead, that right exists for an additional 70 years past the life of the author. If the owner of a copyright has a will, he can bequest his copyright to whoever he wants.

The assignment must be done in writing to be valid. Although notarization isn't required, it's a good idea to have someone witness the assignor and assignee signing and dating the agreement. Transfer of ownership usually involves monetary exchange, although that's not a requirement.

In an assignment of copyright rights, the owner sells his or her ownership rights to another party and has no control over how the third party uses those rights. A copyright assignment is sometimes referred to as a sales agreement for copyright.

Co-authors own the work's copyright jointly and equally, unless the authors make an agreement otherwise. Each joint author has the right to exercise any or all of the exclusive rights inherent in the joint work.

Everyone is a copyright owner. Once you create an original work and fix it, like taking a photograph, writing a poem or blog, or recording a new song, you are the author and the owner. Companies, organizations, and other people besides the work's creator can also be copyright owners.