Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Copyright Law : Internet (I know this is a strange one!)

You may have fun with this one, although the question itself is serious in nature:

There's an Internet 'Urban Legend' growing that originated on a BBS.

Someone claims to be a time traveller. Other people ask questions to which the ''Time Traveller'' gives answers 'from the future'. True or not, the ensuing story turns out to be an appealing tale.

So appealing, in fact, that some people are considering writing books and making movies (for profit and not) based on those postings.

Here's the question:

Who owns the copyright to the story?

1) Is it the individual posting as the 'time traveller'?

2) Is it a collaborative work, owned jointly by the 'time traveller' and the people who helped shape the resultant story with their questions and comments?

3) Is it nobody -- its an urban legend and thus public domain?

4) Something else?


Asked on 1/04/04, 6:19 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Gerry Elman Elman Technology Law, P.C.

Re: Copyright Law : Internet (I know this is a strange one!)

Nice question.

Each author owns the copyright in his/her words as they have been "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" by being saved onto a recording medium on one or more servers somewhere on the Internet. Although the "Time Traveler" writes anonymously or pseudonymously, that doesn't prevent him/her from owning copyright. In general, whoever is generating the text is an author of those words, and (unless they are written as part of the author's employment by another) the author owns the copyright in those words.

Each person who writes a question owns the copyright in the text of that question.

If a free-lance "journalist" writes an article about the overall experience, the journalist owns the copyright in the text of the article, unless and until s/he assigns ownership of the article to, say "publisher." (If such a transfer is not done in writing, the author still owns the copyright; hence the decision of the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of some free-lancers and against the New York Times when the Times republished free-lancers' articles online.)

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Answered on 1/04/04, 9:16 pm


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