Put simply, a work for hire is a creative work done by an employee or independent contractor as part of a project for an employer or project owner. With most creative works, the actual creator owns the right to the piece. That is a guarantee under the US Constitution. It means an author owns their written work just as a musical composer owns their compositions. Someone has no legal right to claim another’s creative work.

Employer-Employee Relations

In order to meet the Constitutional provision, corporations and other businesses have the ability to hire employees that do the actual creation work. The entitled author of the work is the corporation. But, as part of their contract with their employer, the creating employee receives no ownership of the final product. They effectively give up all creative control of anything they make as part of their employment with the company, whether or not the work was assigned by the employer. Freelancing at work? Your employer owns it.

A computer programmer doesn’t own any programs they write for their employer. An advertising copyist doesn’t have any claim to any ad copy they create for their employer. This applies to anyone in a clear employer-employee relationship.

Independent Contractors

A grey area in copyright law is when someone hires an independent contractor instead of an employee to create something. The US Copyright Law of 1976 set out three provisions in the law that the contract must meet before the company can claim ownership of the piece.

The first is that the work must come within one of nine categories in order to qualify. Those categories are a contribution to a collective work, as part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation of some work, an instructional text, a test, an answer guide to a test, or an atlas.

The second provision is that the work must be a commission or specific order. If a company representative buys a completed work of art from a gallery for display in their corporate headquarters, the artist retains complete control on the copyright to that piece. But, if a company commissions a translation of an ancient text with a work for hire provision, the company has the copyright control.

The final provision is that a written agreement must be in place that says the work is actually a commission or order in the work for hire category. An oral agreement is not enough to meet this provision.

If any one of these provisions are not met, the creative work remains the copyright of the actual creator instead of the entity hiring the creation.

How Long Does Copyrights Last in Work for Hire Situations

Another question that often comes up about work for hire situations is how long does the copyright last. The standard provision for copyrights is 70 years after the death of the author or creator. However, corporations can theoretically exist forever, never “dying.” So for this situation, the copyright lasts for 120 years after its creation, or 95 years after its first publication.