''Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid'', 490 U.S. 730 (1989), is a
US copyright law
The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship". With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of thei ...
and
labor law
Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...
case of a
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
case regarding ownership of
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
.
Facts
The
Community for Creative Non-Violence
The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) is a Washington, D.C.-based charity that provides services to the poor and homeless including food, shelter, clothing, medical care, case management, education and art programs.
History
In 1970, Fa ...
, a homeless charity, paid sculptor
James Earl Reid for a statue that depicted the plight of homeless people for a Christmas pageant in
Washington DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, called "Third World America". CCNV members visited Reid's Baltimore studio as he made the statue, gave suggestions and directions about its appearance. CCNV paid Reid the final installment on delivery. They had not discussed copyright in the sculpture. They both filed competing copyright registration certificates.
The District Court held that CCNV had the copyright, as it was a ‘work made for hire’ under the
Copyright Act of 1976
The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, cod ...
, 17 U.S.C. § 101, owned exclusively by CCNV under § 201(b). This vests copyright ownership of works for hire in the employer or other person for whom the work is prepared, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary.
Judgment
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, held the sculpture was not a ‘work made for hire’ because Reid was not an employee, but an independent contractor. However it remanded to the lower court to determine if the statue's copyright was co-owned under §201(a)
Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall giving the court's opinion, the Supreme Court held Reid was an independent contractor, not an employee, so the work was not "made for hire" under §101, and the copyright belonged to Reid, at least in part.
The Court determined that Reid's commission was not "specially ordered or commissioned" under paragraph 2 of 17 USC 101's "work made for hire" definition. It then considered whether Reid was an "employee" preparing the sculpture "within the scope of his employment", whose work fell within "work made for hire", or an independent contract whose work did not fall within "work made for hire".
The Court held that common law
agency
Agency may refer to:
Organizations
* Institution, governmental or others
** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients
** Employment agency, a business that ...
principles should be applied to decide whether a work is made by an employee or an independent contractor. While the statute was silent on the meaning of "employee," Congress could be inferred to have wanted to incorporate agency law definitions, as it also referred to the term "scope of employment" that agency law uses. The general common law of agency must be used over the law of any particular state, in order to create a uniform, nationwide law.
The Court listed 11 factors in determining whether someone is an independent contractor or an employee.
In determining whether a hired party is an employee under the general common law of agency, we consider the hiring party's right to control the manner and means by which the product is accomplished. Among the other factors relevant to this inquiry are the skill required; the source of the instrumentalities and tools; the location of the work; the duration of the relationship between the parties; whether the hiring party has the right to assign additional projects to the hired party; the extent of the hired party's discretion over when and how long to work; the method of payment; the hired party's role in hiring and paying assistants; whether the work is part of the regular business of the hiring party; whether the hiring party is in business; 0the provision of employee benefits; 1and the tax treatment of the hired party.
Based on these factors, the Court held Reid was an independent contractor. Reid supplied his own tools, was without any extensive supervision and was free in the way he met his deadlines. CCNV could not assign more projects to Reid, and paid him in the normal manner independent contractors are done.
The case was remanded to determine whether CCNV could still be regarded as a joint author of the sculpture and co-owner of the copyright, if the District Court determined that the parties intended their contributions be merged into a unitary whole.
Significance
While the case was pending on remand,
Mitch Snyder
Mitch Snyder (August 14, 1943 – July 3, 1990) was an American advocate for the homeless. He was the subject of a made-for-television 1986 biopic, '' Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story'', starring Martin Sheen.
History
Snyder grew up in Fl ...
of CCNV died. The parties subsequently filed a “Joint Motion for Entry of Consent Judgment.” The consent judgment has the following terms:
* Reid was the author of Third World America and solely owned the copyrights to three-dimensional copies of the work, but Reid agreed to certain restrictions on how three-dimensional copies presented the work.
* CCNV solely owned the physical copy of the sculpture.
* CCNV and Reid were co-owners of two-dimensional copies of the work. The consent specified certain restrictions on how both parties could authorize displays of the two-dimensional copies.
Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 1991 WL 415523 (D.D.C. 1991).
In ''
Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Darden
''Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Darden'', 503 U.S. 318 (1992), is a US labor law case, concerning the scope of protection for employees, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The Court held that principles of agen ...
'' (1992),
Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
David Souter
David Hackett Souter ( ; born September 17, 1939) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat ...
used the Court's understanding of the term ''employee'' in Reid to influence the decision, applying the ''Reid'' reading to all cases where the term ''employee'' is not otherwise defined by the statute.
See also
*
US labor law
United States labor law sets the rights and duties for employees, labor unions, and employers in the United States. Labor law's basic aim is to remedy the "inequality of bargaining power" between employees and employers, especially employers "org ...
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 490
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 490 of the ''United States Reports
The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, ...
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases
This page serves as an index of lists of United States Supreme Court cases. The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court of the United States.
By Chief Justice
Court historians and other legal scholars consider each Chief Ju ...
*
Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
The following is a complete list of cases decided by the United States Supreme Court organized by volume of the '' United States Reports'' in which they appear. This is a list of volumes of ''U.S. Reports'', and the links point to the contents of ...
*
Notes
External links
*
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1989 in United States case law