Copyright Act 1994

21 First ownership of copyright

• (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the person who is the author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

  (2) Where an employee makes, in the course of his or her employment, a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work, that person's employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

  (3) Where—

  • (a) a person commissions, and pays or agrees to pay for, the taking of a photograph or the making of a computer program, painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart, plan, engraving, model, sculpture, film, or sound recording; and

  • (b) the work is made in pursuance of that commission,—

  that person is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

  (4) Subsections (2) and (3) apply subject to any agreement to the contrary.

  (5) Subsections (1) to (4) apply subject to sections 26 and 28.

  Compare: 1962 No 33 ss 9, 13(4), 14(4); Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s 11 (UK)