Contribution to collective work

A contribution to a collective work is an article, column, or short story that has been published in a magazine, newspaper, or other periodical. The copyright in a separate contribution to a published collective work such as a periodical is distinct from the copyright in the collective work as a whole. In the absence of an express transfer from the author of the individual article, the copyright owner in the collective work is presumed to have acquired only the privilege of using the contribution in the collective work and in subsequent revisions and later editions of the collective work.

A contribution, such as a pictorial or graphic work, to a collective work may appear with its own copyright notice.However, the law does provide that a single notice covering the collective work as a whole can defeat a defense of “innocent infringement.”

The copyright in the contribution may be registered by the owner of the contribution. If the owner will be publishing a series of contributions during a 12-month period, it may make a single registration for a group of contributions to the periodical.

The deposit for the registration of a contribution to a collective work will be either one complete copy of the best edition of the entire collective work, the complete section containing the contribution if published in a newspaper, the entire page containing the contribution, the contribution cut from the paper in which it appeared, or a photocopy of the contribution itself as it was published in the collective work.