Law Commons^™

An Idea Of Authorship: Orson Welles, The War Of The Worlds Copyright, And Why We Should Recognize Idea-Contributors As Joint Authors, Timothy J. Mcfarlin

Case Western Reserve Law Review

Did Orson Welles co-author the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has told us no, primarily because he only contributed the idea behind the broadcast, and ideas alone can’t be copyrighted. “An Idea of Authorship” challenges this premise—that ideas, no matter how significant, cannot qualify for joint authorship in collaborative works—and argues that we as a society should, under certain circumstances, recognize idea-contributors like Welles as joint authors. We should do so to further our society’s interest in encouraging future creations, as well as out of a sense of equity and fairness to idea-contributors, …