Justices Back Free-Lance Artists in Copyright Ownership Dispute

The Supreme Court, in a victory for artists and authors, ruled Monday that a homeless-rights group is not the exclusive owner of the copyright to a sculpture it commissioned an artist to create.

The 9-0 decision (CCNV vs. Reid, 88-293) ordered further lower court hearings to determine whether the Community for Creative Non-Violence and its founder, Mitch Snyder, may share in the copyright of a work entitled “Third World America,” which depicts the plight of the homeless.

Justice Thurgood Marshall, writing for the court, said the sculpture is a “work made for hire” and, therefore, its creator, James Earl Reid of Baltimore, must at least share in the copyright.

Marshall said the Community for Creative Non-Violence did not become the copyright owner just because it played an active role in designing the work and may control its display. Reid is a free-lance artist, not an employee of the group, he said.

“Transforming a commissioned work into a work by an employee on the basis of the hiring party’s right to control . . . the work is inconsistent with . . . the work-for-hire provisions” of a 1976 federal copyright law, Marshall said.

After a dispute with Reid over display of the sculpture, the non-violence group filed a lawsuit claiming exclusive copyright ownership of the work.

A federal judge ruled in favor of the organization. But the U.S. Court of Appeals here overturned the judge’s decision.

A group representing more than 100,000 artists and authors urged the Supreme Court to uphold the appeals court decision. The reputations and incomes of free-lance artists depend on their ability to own the copyrights of their works, the group said.