Did you know that copyright automatically belongs to the creator, except when you’re commissioned or employed to do the work? Commissioning doesn’t always mean you’re paid with money; it could be giving you the supplies for your mural, or any other kind of exchange.
In the Copyright Act (1994) is a section titled “Ownership of Copyright.” In that section, it states that "Where:
(a) a person commissions, and pays or agrees to pay for, the taking of a photograph or the making of a computer program, painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart, plan, engraving, model, sculpture, film, or sound recording; and
(b) the work is made in pursuance of that commission, that person is the first owner of any copyright in the work."
Loosely, and more widely known as “The Commissioning Rule,” this means that if you, as an artist, are commissioned to create something, and the person commissioning it pays or agrees to pay you, the owner of the copyright is not you, but them.
This makes sense, for example, if you are a designer, working for an architectural company. Everything you design during your employment belongs to the company.
It's also logical for someone like a wedding photographer, since you don’t want the happy couple to have to contact you every time they want to reprint a photo, turn it into a thank you card, post it on social media, or turn it into a first anniversary jigsaw puzzle. The wedding couple commissioned you to take photos, and the right to do whatever they want with the photos belongs to them.
But let’s say my neighbour commissions me to paint a picture of her dogs, and once finished, I see that the picture has commercial potential. My neighbour is only hanging the picture on the wall; I want to upload it and sell it online, at a virtual veterinary convention (work with me, people!) I can’t do that, because Myrtle owns the copyright, and I, by law, don’t have permission to make copies.
So, if you, the creator, for any reason want to retain ownership of copyright for a work you have created as a commission, this is something that must be explicit in your contract, because the law, by default, gives copyright ownership to the commissioner.
Are you interested in finding out how copyright applies to you?
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Written by Karen Workman, Kaiwhakahaere Whakapa | Creative Rights Educator