Translation under the copyright regime: service or work?

Abstract

Many contemporary copyright issues result from the globalized and informational knowledge society, where there is a proliferation of creative production and in which creation itself has become a good. In this context, some contracts distort the translator's role, a creator of work under copyright, who is represented in the guise of a service provider. This ambiguous treatment motivated research on the concepts of work, work made for hire, contract for intellectual work, and the purchase and sale of future goods contract, and their historical and doctrinal premises, to investigate the improper application of some of these concepts to the copyright system. Therefore, the paper discusses the creation of commissioned work, questioning the possibility of translation under copyright being work made for hire. The upcoming revision of Law 9610 of 1998 makes the issue of works doctrinally designated as commissioned work, which includes translation, very timely. Based on reflections arising from the readings, the conclusion is that the object of the signed contract that authorizes the circulation of translations, commissioned from translator-authors under copyright, is itself a copyright and not a work made for hire. Therefore, the translation contract under copyright cannot be treated as a work made for hire.