Intellectual Property Principles
Owner and creator rights
A copyright creator is a person who uses their intellectual abilities, to create a work of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic creativity. There can be more than one creator of a work. In legal documents and legislation, the creator is often referred to as the ‘author’. The term ‘author’ is used broadly, so that an author may be an artist or a music composer (not just the writer of a book).
A copyright owner is a person who owns the copyright either through creation or by assignment (legal transfer of ownership). Generally, a person who creates the work also automatically owns the copyright. However, there are certain exceptions to this rule. The creator of a work and its copyright owner will not always be the same person.
It’s interesting to note that under the law, only a human being can be the creator of a copyrightable work. However, the right to own copyright extends to artificial entities such as a company.
A copyright owner has exclusive rights in their work. This means that if anybody else wants to use a copyright protected work, they must obtain the copyright owner’s permission or they must operate under a legal exception.