Law Commons^™

Manifest Intent And Copyrightability: The Destiny Of Joint Authorship, Therese M. Brady

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The 1976 Copyright Act defines joint ownership as requiring an "intent" by multiple authors to merge their works into a single work. Prior to 1976, two standards of determining intent existed in the case law. One was an objective standard, known as common design, and the other was a subjective standard. In part because the 1976 Act does not mention common design, subjective intent came to dominate joint authorship jurisprudence post-1976. As a result of this dominance, many authors have been deprived of their rights. Brady argues that a new standard should be set out by the courts that once …