If an artist creates musical or short video work...
When determining the attribution of the copyright of a work, it is necessary to be clear about whether this work is a service work, a legal entity work or a commissioned work.
If the artist is an employee of this company and created this work in order to accomplish a work task, this work will be defined as a service work.When this work is defined as a general service work, the artist generally enjoys the copyright; when this work is defined as a special service work, the company enjoys the copyright while the artist enjoys the right of authorship.
A work created by a citizen when fulfilling the tasks assigned to him by a legal entity or another organization is deemed to be a service work.Specifically, the service work should meet the following constituent requirements: (1) there is a labor relationship between the creator and the entity, which is a broad-based labor relationship.Besides regular employees, dispatch personnel, interns, etc.also belong to the entity employees; (2) employees create works to fulfill the work tasks assigned by the entity.“Work tasks” under Chinese law refer to “the duties the citizen shall fulfill in the legal person or organization by which he is employed”,which includes both the creation of works performed by employees in their daily work process and the creative tasks that entities temporarily assign employees to fulfill; (3) works that are not related to the job and are fulfilled by employees after work out of their interest and hobbies are not classif ied as service works; (4) the creation of service works more ref lects the employees’ personal creative will.
Specific situations determine whether the author or the legal entity obtains the copyright of service works.Generally, service works can be classif ied as general service works and special service works.According to laws, if there is no special agreement, the copyright of such a work shall be enjoyed by the author, but the legal entity or organization shall have a priority right to exploit the work within the scope of its professional activities and the right to allow a third party to use the works within two years after the accomplishment of the work as well as the right to share remuneration.For special service works, the author shall enjoy the right of authorship, while the legal entity or organization shall enjoy other rights included in the copyright.The special service works refer to the following two situations: (1) drawings of engineering designs and product designs, maps, computer software and other service works, which are created mainly with the materials and technical resources of the legal entity or organization and under its responsibility; (2) service works of which the copyright is enjoyed by the legal entity or organization, in accordance with the laws or administrative regulations or as agreed upon this clause at end of sentence in the contract.(https://www.daowen.com)
If an artist creates a musical work on behalf of the company’s will and under the company’s organization, and this work is the responsibility of the legal entity, the legal entity can enjoy the copyright including the right of authorship.
There are several distinctions between service works and legal entity works: (1)the service works emphasize the labor relationship between the creator and the company while the creator of a legal entity work can be either a company employee or a non-company employee; (2) during the creation of service works, the company provides a broad framework and overall thinking, employees may independently determine the content and specific expressions of works while legal entity works more ref lect the will of company management; (3) service works, especially general ones, require employees to provide more creative works, while for legal entity works, the company provides more resources and materials.In the latter case, as the organizer, the company puts forward specific requirements, provides materials, funds, equipment, etc.as well as participates in the work to control the progress and quality of the work; (4) the author shall bear the responsibility for the general service works, while the company shall bear the responsibility for the special service works and works of a legal entity.
If the artist accepts the commission from the company to create this work, the attribution of the copyright shall be agreed upon in the contract between the commissioning party and the commissioned party.In the absence of such a contract or of an explicit agreement in the contract, the copyright in such a work shall belong to the commissioned party.