Intellectual Property in Commercial Settings
Examples of copyright exceptions
Jess works as a freelance photographer for a travel company. She often travels to different locations to take photographs which can be used by the travel company.
She uses her own camera and sets her own hours.
The travel company covers her travel costs, though Jess arranges her own travel insurance.
Jess is paid per photograph.
In this example, Jess owns the copyright in her photographs because she only works as a freelance photographer. If the travel company wants to use the photographs, they may do so either through a licence (permission) or assignment of copyright (transfer of ownership).
Jess, the photographer, later starts working as a full time photographer with the travel company.
ExampleJess the fulltime employee
Jess is now paid weekly and receives superannuation payments and leave entitlements.
A part of her job requires her to travel to different locations and take photographs of tourist friendly locations for the sole use of the company. For this purpose, she is also provided with a company camera.
Jess travels to Vietnam for a family vacation and uses the company’s camera to take pictures of the various tourist locations.
In this example, the company would own the copyright in those photographs because - Jess is a full time employee of the travel company; photographing tourist locations is part of her job; and she used the company camera to take the photographs.
It is important to note that just because Jess took the photographs outside her normal working hours, this doesn't necessarily imply that this falls outside the scope of her employment. The fact that she used the company resources (i.e. the camera) to take the photographs of tourist locations (which is part of her job anyway), brings her act within the employer-employee setting rule.