Editing Copyright (section)

== {{Anchor |Transfer and licensing, and assignment }} Transfer, assignment and licensing ==
{{See also|Collective rights management |Extended collective licensing |Compulsory license |Copyright transfer agreement }}
[[File:All rights reserved.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Generic DVD: ''[[All rights reserved]]'']]
A copyright, or aspects of it (e.g. reproduction alone, all but moral rights), may be assigned or transferred from one party to another.<ref name="WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights">{{Cite book |title=WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvRRvXBIi8MC |isbn=978-92-805-1271-7 |year=2004 |publisher=World Intellectual Property Organization |page=15 }}</ref> For example, a musician who records an album will often sign an agreement with a record company in which the musician agrees to transfer all copyright in the recordings in exchange for royalties and other considerations. The creator (and original copyright holder) benefits, or expects to, from production and marketing capabilities far beyond those of the author. In the digital age of music, music may be copied and distributed at minimal cost through the [[Internet]]; however, the [[record industry]] attempts to provide promotion and marketing for the artist and their work so it can reach a much larger audience. A copyright holder need not transfer all rights completely, though many publishers will insist. Some of the rights may be transferred, or else the copyright holder may grant another party a non-exclusive license to copy or distribute the work in a particular region or for a specified period of time.

A transfer or license may have to meet particular formal requirements in order to be effective,<ref name="WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights(2)">{{Cite book |title=WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvRRvXBIi8MC |page=8 |isbn=978-92-805-1271-7 |year=2004 |publisher=World Intellectual Property Organization }}</ref> for example under the Australian [[Copyright law of Australia#Copyright Act 1968|Copyright Act 1968]] the copyright itself must be expressly transferred in writing. Under the US Copyright Act, a transfer of ownership in copyright must be memorialized in a writing signed by the transferor. For that purpose, ownership in copyright includes exclusive licenses of rights. Thus, exclusive licenses, to be effective, must be granted in a written instrument signed by the grantor. No special form of transfer or grant is required. A simple document that identifies the work involved and the rights being granted is sufficient. Non-exclusive grants (often called non-exclusive licenses) need not be in writing under [[Law of the United States|US law]]. They can be oral or even implied by the behavior of the parties. Transfers of copyright ownership, including exclusive licenses, may and should be recorded in the U.S. Copyright Office. (Information on recording transfers is available on the Office's web site.) While recording is not required to make the grant effective, it offers important benefits, much like those obtained by recording a deed in a [[real estate]] transaction.

Copyright may also be [[license]]d.<ref name="WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights" /> Some jurisdictions may provide that certain classes of copyrighted works be made available under a prescribed [[statutory license]] (e.g. musical works in the United States used for radio broadcast or performance). This is also called a [[compulsory license]], because under this scheme, anyone who wishes to copy a covered work does not need the permission of the copyright holder, but instead merely files the proper notice and pays a set fee established by statute (or by an agency decision under statutory guidance) for every copy made.<ref name="WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights(3)">{{Cite book |title=WIPO Guide on the Licensing of Copyright and Related Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvRRvXBIi8MC |page=16 |isbn=978-92-805-1271-7 |year=2004 |publisher=World Intellectual Property Organization }}</ref> Failure to follow the proper procedures would place the copier at risk of an infringement suit. Because of the difficulty of following every individual work, [[copyright collective]]s or [[collecting societies]] and [[performance rights organisation|performing rights organizations]] (such as [[ASCAP]], [[Broadcast Music Incorporated|BMI]], and [[SESAC]]) have been formed to collect royalties for hundreds (thousands and more) works at once. Though this market solution bypasses the statutory license, the availability of the statutory fee still helps dictate the price per work collective rights organizations charge, driving it down to what avoidance of procedural hassle would justify.

=== Free licenses ===
{{Main|Free license}}
{{See also|Open-source license}}

Copyright licenses known as ''open'' or free licenses seek to grant several rights to licensees, either for a fee or not. ''Free'' in this context is not as much of a reference to price as it is to freedom. What constitutes free licensing has been characterised in a number of similar definitions, including by order of longevity the [[Free Software Definition]], the [[Debian Free Software Guidelines]], the [[Open Source Definition]] and the [[Definition of Free Cultural Works]]. Further refinements to these definitions have resulted in categories such as [[copyleft]] and [[permissive license|permissive]]. Common examples of free licenses are the [[GNU General Public License]], [[BSD license]]s and some [[Creative Commons licenses]].

Founded in 2001 by [[James Boyle (academic)|James Boyle]], [[Lawrence Lessig]], and [[Hal Abelson]], the [[Creative Commons]] (CC) is a non-profit organization<ref name="CC">{{Cite web |url=https://creativecommons.org/ |title=Creative Commons Website |website=creativecommons.org |access-date=24 October 2011 }}</ref> which aims to facilitate the legal sharing of creative works. To this end, the organization provides a number of generic copyright license options to the public, [[gratis versus libre|gratis]]. These licenses allow copyright holders to define conditions under which others may use a work and to specify what types of use are acceptable.<ref name="CC" />

Terms of use have traditionally been negotiated on an individual basis between copyright holder and potential licensee. Therefore, a general CC license outlining which rights the copyright holder is willing to waive enables the general public to use such works more freely. Six general types of CC licenses are available (although some of them are not properly free per the above definitions and per Creative Commons' own advice). These are based upon copyright-holder stipulations such as whether they are willing to allow modifications to the work, whether they permit the creation of derivative works and whether they are willing to permit commercial use of the work.<ref name="Rubin">Rubin, R. E. (2010) 'Foundations of Library and Information Science: Third Edition', Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., New York, p. 341</ref> {{As of |2009 }} approximately 130 million individuals had received such licenses.<ref name="Rubin" />