A Bundle of Rights

David Malick
a bundle of white sage on gray textile

The owner of a copyright has a bundle of exclusive rights in the copyrighted work including the right to:

  • make copies of, or reproduce, the work;
  • prepare derivative works;
  • distribute copies of the work to the public;
  • perform the work publicly; and
  • display the work publicly.

This bundle of rights belongs to the owner of a copyrighted work. If there is more than one owner of a copyrighted work, because more than one person created the work, each person owns the same, full bundle of rights. Therefore, the owner(s) of a copyrighted work can license any of bundle of rights in the work to someone else. They can do this together (jointly) or individually (separately). Issuing a license to someone to use a copyrighted work will be discussed in a separate entry.

A copy of a work is a reproduction of the work in a fixed form. This is, in essence, the appropriation of an author’s creativity in the author’s own form of expression. This could involve the printing of a written work, the photocopy of a written work, or the digital formatting of a written work, the reproduction of a musical or sound recording in an audio medium (tape, CD, digitally), or the reproduction of a visual work in a visual medium (film, tape, CD, digitally). This reproduction need not be intended for public distribution to be a violation of the right to copy a work.

A derivative work involves making changes to the original work by recasting it, adapting it, or transforming it with the result that the newly created work remains similar to the original work. For instance, a sound recording might be rearranged, remixed, or altered in sequence or quality; a photograph might be altered in its content or color; a written work might be translated; a story might be adapted to the screen or made into a musical. Editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, musical arrangements, dramatizations, art reproductions, or other modifications of a work might make the work a derivative work.

Distributing copies of a work involves making the work available to the public by selling the work, renting the work, leasing the work, lending the work, or gifting the work. The author of a copyrighted written work has the right to control the distribution of books and recordings of the work. Sending a poem in a personal email to another might not be a violation of this right. However, “peer-to-peer” file sharing of sound recordings has been found to violation this right. Also posting a copyrighted poem on social medial accessible to the public would violate this right. However, once a copy of a work has been lawfully produced (as in a book or a recording), the owner of the purchased work no longer has a right over that particular copy of the work. This is called the “first sale doctrine,” but it may not apply to the sale (license) of digital copies of a work or recording purchased online.

Performance of a work means to recite, play, dance, or act a work in a place open to the public or beyond the circle of family and its social acquaintances, or to transmit the performance of a work publicly. This applies to owners of copyrights in literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pantomimes, motion picture, and other audio-visual works. Copyrighted works omitted from this right are pictorial, graphic, sculptural works, and sound recordings not digitally transmitted. This could involve the performance of a musical composition, the transmission of music on a cable system, or application, or permitting paying customers to view and play a copyrighted video game.

Displaying the work publicly means to show a copy of a work directly or by film, slide, television, or any other device, in a place open to the public or beyond the circle of family or to transmit the work publicly. Much of this right is similar to the pervious discussion of performance of a work. In the performance of a work, the images of a motion picture may be shown in any sequence, but in displaying the work publicly, individual images must be shown non-sequentially, as in the showing of a still image on the internet.

Much more can be said about each of the rights briefly described above. If you would like to discuss the bundle of rights belonging to a copyright owner in more depth, please feel free to contact me at RichardsonClement PC: