Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia

Re: Volunteer Writer

I could be wrong, but this may fall under "work for hire" doctrine and would be the property of the wage-paying employer. There is a question whether it would apply to "volunteer" (free) work or work by the self-employed. Did you copyright the work? You will need to research this further (or have an attorney to do the same) to be sure this is correct.

Re: Volunteer Writer

Cary is correct that the issue is that it could be "work for hire." That is when you work for a company any inventions or writing you produce while on their payroll is considered the property of your employer.

However, since you neither have a contract nor were you being paid as an employer, this may not apply.,

It would depend, then, on exactly what was the understanding, what were the cirumstances, etc. So it is hard to give a general answer.

However, with copyright -- unlike inventions and patents -- there is an additional complication.

When you sell copyright rights, you can sell the right of "first publication in North America."

So it could be said that the website got what you did for them... the right of first publication in North America.

By republishing it at a later date, as the author, you are exercising the right of subsequent publication. It could be said that you give the first website the right of first publication, and they have received full benefit of that alrady.

Re: Volunteer Writer

Volunteer Writer -- please read the following excerpt regarding copyright ownership of the work you produced and another published. Also, try to look back to see if there were any Terms of Use (TOW) that you had to accept before submitting the content.

Sec. 201. Ownership of Copyright

a) Initial Ownership. Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are co-owners of copyright in the work.

b) Works Made for Hire. In the case of a work made by hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.

Comment: Section 201(a) makes clear that ownership of a copyright vests initially in the author. Thus publishers hold copyrights as assignees of authors. Section 201(b) is what is called a legal fiction, that is a proposition that has legal effect but is not true as a matter of fact. The fiction in this case is that the employer of an author for whom the work is prepared is the author of the work. It is necessary to use a fiction to place the copyright in the employer because the copyright clause enables Congress to grant copyright only to authors.

Note: copyrights are different from patents which are different from trademarks.