Collaborative Authorship: From Folklore to the Wikborg

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Citation: Shun-Ling Chen (2011) Collaborative Authorship: From Folklore to the Wikborg. Journal of Law, Technology and Policy (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Collaborative Authorship: From Folklore to the Wikborg
Download: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1826403
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Summary

Contrasts US copyright law emphasizing individual owners with folklore and wiki community engagement with copyright.

Describes tests used by US courts to determine whether joint copyright exists: intention (expressed in billing/credits, contract, and decision-making), and in recent cases, whether the claimed joint author's contribution would be independently copyrightable. Briefly describes joint authorship court cases in a wide range of fields. Outlines the moral choices of this doctrine:

  • prominent issue in cases examined is determination of property rights
  • joint authorship is the exception, granted more "grudgingly" than required by statutory language; otherwise "copyright would explode"
  • property/contract distinction maintained; work-for-hire is preferred to joint copyright as contributor could have obtained an agreement
  • "legibility" of collaboration more important than domain-specific practice, privileging collaborators who "fix" material even if co-created (eg songwriter and band that "works out" song together)

Then describes briefly the long-lived collaborations that are folk culture and wikis, their decreased emphasis on individual creators and importance of community norms, and some encounters with copyright law, such as the a dispute between two Pangcah (an indigenous Taiwanese people) singers and a band that sampled them without credit or compensation, and licensing norms and changes in the Wikipedia community.

Theoretical and Practical Relevance

Concluding paragraph: "In order to defend their collective practices and values that are different from those of the mainstream society, marginal communities often have to strategically use legal norms or other tools based on external institutions. While these strategies can be effective, they rely on a value system which these communities are against. What may be of more importance for sustaining communal practices and values are the strengthening of communal norms and the continuous negotiation within the community."