Jonathan Cornthwaite navigates through the minefield that is copyright disputes
- Drawing the line between the rights of those who contribute —in different ways, and in different degrees—to the making of a copyright work.
If you were to embark upon writing a novel, it is rather unlikely that you would invite anyone else to join you in the task. But in many other areas of creative activity, collaboration between two or more participants is very normal. And, furthermore, it can be hugely fruitful: in the field of popular song alone, for example, one thinks of George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Elton John and Bernie Taupin …and of course Lennon and McCartney.
But if collaboration can often be very beneficial from a creative standpoint, it can be an absolute minefield from the legal perspective. Indeed, one of the highest-profile copyright wrangles to have perplexed the English courts in recent years was on the subject of the respective rights of those who contributed to the composition of A Whiter Shade of Pale, one of the most successful popular songs of the 20th century.
