Re: Copyright Ownership in Community Property States

On 5/3/1999, S. Martin Keleti <keleti[_at_]manifesto.com> wrote:
>
> I can only speak about one of the 8 (9, counting Wisconsin) community
> property jurisdictions, California. In California, the rule is as
> Wes Cochran believed it to be in Texas (but isn't, according to John
> Allison's source). Family Code s. 770 restates former Civil Code ss.
> 5107 & 5108 which make the following the separate property of a
> married person:
>
> (1) all property owned by the person before marriage
>
> (2) all property acquired by the person after marriage by gift,
> bequest, devise, or descent
>
> (3) rents, issues, and profits of separate property.
>
> Fam. Code s. 771 (continuing former C.C. 5118) makes the earnings and
> accumulations of a married person living separate and apart from the
> other spouse) separate property, too.

I must have been thinking of California's rule.

At any rate, the equity problem still exists in Texas with the very limited provisions for post-divorce spousal support. The Rodrigue case would allow the creating spouse to leave with the copyright ownership of all of the works created during the marriage as his or her separate property. The non-creating spouse in Texas could have spousal support only under limited conditions (maximum limit of 3 years for a homemaker for the purpose of making him or her self-supporting). As I indicated earlier, a judge would probably allow for support for a spouse returning to school to earn a college degree, but I doubt that a judge would approve support simply on the basis of equity because the creating spouse wrote three or four novels that will earn a six-figure royalty payment over the next five years.

Wes Cochran
Professor of Law
Texas Tech University
xpjwc[_at_]ttacs.ttu.edu Received on Tue May 04 1999 - 13:45:18 GMT