How to Buy Copyrights
In order to avoid infringing upon someone else’s ownership of a particular original work, a person must acquire legal rights to use the work. Copyright law exists to prevent “original works of authorship” from being used without the copyright owner’s permission. Acquiring copyright can be done by purchasing the copyrights from the owner.
- Determine the type of rights you wish to buy as this may make a difference on the cost once it comes time to negotiate with the copyright owner. Exclusive rights means that the copyright owner may sell copies of the work, display it publicly or create other works derived from it.
- Determine how much of the work you want to use, certain forms of use may be covered by “fair use” and thus make purchase unnecessary. Certain forms of copying are permissible. For example, in instances where a copyrighted work is to be reviewed or used for journalistic purposes.
- Find out who owns the copyright to the work you wish to buy. You have two options for this. The first is to pay the U.S. Copyright Office a fee to have their staff search through their records for you. The fee will be charged per hour of search time, which means that there is no fixed price and the longer it takes, the more money you will pay. The other option is to go the copyright office and search for the owner yourself, for which there is no fee. Copyright registrations made from 1978 to the present may be searched on the Internet.
- Make a request to buy the rights that you want from the owner. This will require contacting them and making an offer. Copyright sales are usually done via a contract between the two parties. You will be acquiring written permission from the copyright owner for rights to use the work exclusively. The owner may sell or withhold any part of the exclusive rights such as the right to make derivative works. Non-exclusive rights do not need written permission.