Re: anonymous copyright

On Thu, Oct 14, 1999, Mike Holderness <mch[_at_]cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Mikus Grinbergs <mikus[_at_]bga.com> wrote:
> >
> > When the author of a work is expressly identified as "Anonymous",
> > does that affect the copyright in that work?
> >
> > [I was on the Board of Editors of an organization. We published
> > an anthology of poetry in which the author of one of the poems
> > was listed as "Anonymous". We knew who the author was, but the
> > author had requested to be listed as "Anonymous" because of the
> > intensely personal subject matter of the poem.]
>
> In general, I suggest that the moral right of identification gives
> authors the right to the identification of their choice -- "George
> Eliot" or "Anonymous" having the same status as any other string
> of letters they may choose. The rights of the underlying natural
> person are unaffected by the choice of identification.
>
> In the USA there is no such right, so I haven't the foggiest idea;
> I suspect you'd have to read and interpret all contracts relating
> to the work in question.

Form TX for registration of copyright in the US specifically asks whether the work was anonymous or pseudonymous. By implication, then, a work can have been published anonymously without affecting the true author's copyright claim. Note also that on any novel by John Le Carre you will see the copyright notice in the name of David Cornwell (Le Carre is a pseudonym).

Bob

Robert C. Cumbow
> Graham & Dunn, P.C.
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Received on Fri Oct 15 1999 - 15:29:23 GMT