Derivative Works Information

WebsAwards believes that all our members are “morally viable” award program owners therefore we have the expectation that any award program owner whose award program meets the below explanation of being a derivative work will declare same within our rating application form. We will consider derivative works on a case by case basis in discussion with award program owners as considered necessary.

Under United States Copyright Office - Circular 14 - it is stated in part:

• What is a typical example of a Derivative Work received for registration in a Copyright Office? It is one that is primarily a new work but incorporates some previously published material. This previously published material makes the work a derivative work under the copyright law. To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a “new work” or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes. The new material must be original and copyrightable in itself. Titles, short phrases, and format for example, are not copyrightable.
• Who may prepare a Derivative Work? Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work. The owner is generally the author or someone who has obtained rights from the author.
• Derivative or Copyright? Unless the “new work doctrine” applys, a derivitive work which is certainly the right of the original author, is not copyrightable, therefore to suggest that it is copyright is in error.
• Conclusion: So this becomes a “moral obligation” rather than one which contains issues of copyright and there is an inherit right under the guidelines for any other organization who may wish to clarify their requirements.

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