FAQ/Who is the author?

 

{FAQ} Who is the author?

The term “author” means “a person who creates a work.”

The author of a work enjoys both moral rights and copyrights at the same time when he/she creates a work. These author’s rights to a work initially belongs to the author who has created the work and such an author of the work is usually a natural person (living human being). However, as for a work that is created by an employee of a company, there is an exception in which the company becomes an author, subject to certain legal requirements (See Art.15).

 

(ref.) Art. 15(1) of Copyright Act

For a work (except a work of computer programming) that an employee of a corporation or other employers (hereinafter in this Article such a corporation or other employers are referred to as a "corporation, etc.") makes in the course of duty at the initiative of the corporation, etc., and that the corporation, etc. makes public as a work of its own authorship, the author is the corporation, etc., so long as it is not stipulated otherwise in a contract, in employment rules, or elsewhere at the time the work is made.

For more information