Legal Question in Business Law in Texas

Is a copyright claimed by a museum legal?

I was a reporter at a Dallas, TX newspaper when President Kennedy was killed. I, among other reporters employed by the newspaper, wrote stories on the subject. We usually assumed our stories were the property of that newspaper. One reporter/copy editor, collected scraps of paper from trash cans, the floor, what he found. He eventually gave them to a non-profit museum, which cataloged and ''copyrighted'' them. I was allowed to purchase copies but I am told I cannot display them. My question is whether he museum's ''copyright'' is legal.


Asked on 5/15/03, 12:51 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Peter Bradie Bradie, Bradie & Bradie

Re: Is a copyright claimed by a museum legal?

Depends upon what they copyrighted. Insofar as I know, the catalog or compendium is copyrightable, the same as an anthology of short stories. However, the individual items within the compendium, catalog, or anthology, are not covered by that copyright.

If they published an unedited draft of your story in that collection, your newspaper would have had the right to copyright that story, and not the museum.

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Answered on 5/15/03, 1:12 pm

Re: Is a copyright claimed by a museum legal?

To add to Peter:

Copyright in the work of authorship immediately is property of the author who created the work. Only the author or someone deriving rights through the author can rightfully claim the copyright.

In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author. Section 101 of the copyright law defines a "work made for hire" as:

(1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or

(2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as:

a contribution to a collective work

a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work

a translation

a supplementary work

a compilation

an instructional text

a test

answer material for a test

an atlas

if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire....

Whereas, copyright in each separate contribution to a periodical or other collective work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a whole and vests initially with the author of the contribution.

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Answered on 5/15/03, 1:51 pm


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