[Dspace-general] Multiple co-authors

[Jim Ottaviani]

Hello all,

Claudia Juergen writes:

> you need the permissions of all authors or copyright holders.
>
> This might be implicit. One may sign a statement per procurationem of
> the others. This depends also on the copyright law of your country.

Yes, it does depend, since it's not true that you must always have the 
permission of all authors, at least in the U.S.  U.S. copyright law 
specifically states (Section 201): "The authors of a joint work are 
coowners of copyright in the work."

So unless the authors transfered specific rights (such as the right to 
distribute) to someone else, or to one of the co-authors, the copyright is 
owned equally and in full by all authors.

That said, German and/or Hong Kong law may be different, and there is of 
course a difference between legally requiring permission and asking or 
even requiring authors (in a self-deposit model) to notify their 
co-authors as a courtesy.

Best,

Jim

____________________________________
Jim Ottaviani
+1 734-763-4835
Coordinator, Deep Blue
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu
University of Michigan Library

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