Creative Dilemma: Determining Authorship Rights in Studio Session Works

A recording session is generally a team effort, with artist, engineer and producer working together to create sound recording masters. However, unless set forth in written agreements, just who owns the rights in the works may not be clear. For example, what if an engineer with creative input claims to be a joint author? Even less clear may be who owns the rights if a visitor to a recording session becomes a contributor to a track. Such situations may raise claims of joint authorship and/or copyright infringement, among other things. (A joint copyright owner can't sue a co-owner for infringement, but a court may recognize a joint authorship claim as a distinct alternative from an infringement claim in the same case.) Defendants in these actions may claim an implied license, that the visitor's contribution wasn't original enough to be copyrightable or that the contribution was a work-for-hire under that the defendants own. These arguments were recently tested in a case involving a recording session for the popular hip-hop artist Jay-Z.