Copyright Act 1994

6: Meaning of work of joint authorship

You could also call this:

"What is a work created by multiple authors?"

When you create a work with others, it is called a work of joint authorship. This means you and the other authors worked together to produce the work, and it is not clear who contributed what. You treat a communication work as a work of joint authorship if more than one person is involved in making it. When the Act talks about the author of a work, it means all the authors of a work of joint authorship. If a work would not have copyright if one or more authors were the only authors, you treat the other authors as the sole authors of the work. This is how you determine the copyright for a work of joint authorship in the Copyright Act 1994, which you can find on the legislation website.

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5: Meaning of author, or

"Who is considered the author of a created work"

7: Meaning of unknown authorship, or

"What happens when we don't know who wrote something"

6Meaning of work of joint authorship

In this Act, the term work of joint authorship means a work produced by the collaboration of 2 or more authors in which the contribution of each author is not distinct from that of the other author or authors.
A communication work must be treated as a work of joint authorship in any case where more than 1 person is to be taken as making the communication work.
References in this Act to the author of a work shall be construed in relation to a work of joint authorship as a reference to all the authors of the work.
Where, in relation to a work of joint authorship, copyright would not exist in the work if 1 or more of the authors were the sole author or sole joint authors, the work shall be treated as if the other author or authors were the sole author or sole joint authors of the work.

Compare

1962 No 33 ss 12(3), (4), (6)

Notes

Section 6(2): substituted, on 31 October 2008, by section 8 of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 27).