Method
Author
Overview
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is called authorship, which means a sculptor, painter, or composer is considered the author of their respective sculptures, paintings, or musical compositions. Although in common usage, the term "author" is often associated specifically with the writer of a book, article, play, or other written work. In cases involving a work for hire, the employer or commissioning party is legally considered the author of the work, even if it was created by someone else.
Typically, the first owner of a copyright is the creator of the copyrighted work, i.e., the author. If more than one person created the work, then joint authorship has taken place. Copyright law differs around the world. The United States Copyright Office, for example, defines copyright as "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of 'original works of authorship.'"
Some works are considered to be author-less, or are anonymously or secretly authored. The monkey selfie copyright dispute in the 2010s was a notable dispute of authorship involving photographs taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to a nature photographer. The photographer asserted authorship of the photographs, which the United States Copyright Office denied, stating: "To qualify as a work of 'authorship' a work must be created by a human being." The development of generative artificial intelligence has led to discourse regarding authorship of the media it generates.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Author is discussed.
Author is a generic term, which, like the names of all other professions, may signify author of the good, or of the bad; of the respectable, or of the ridiculous; of the useful, or the agreeable; or lastly, the producer of disgusting trash. This name is also common to different things. We say equally the author of nature and the author of the songs of the Pont Neuf, or of the literary age.
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; opens on it
And then the Person is the Actor; and he that owneth his words and actions, is the AUTHOR: In which case the Actor acteth by Authority. For that which in speaking of goods and possessions, is called an Owner, and in latine Dominus, in Greeke Kurios; speaking of Actions, is called Author. And as the Right of possession, is called Dominion; so the Right of doing any Action, is called AUTHORITY.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; opens on it
Such instrument shall specifically identify the work, and uses of that work, to which the waiver applies, and the waiver shall apply only to the work and uses so identified. In the case of a joint work prepared by two or more authors, a waiver of rights under this paragraph made by one such author waives such rights for all such authors. (2) Ownership of the rights conferred by subsection (a) with respect to a work…
United States, Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
(B) the author's surviving children, and the surviving children of any dead child of the author, own the author's entire termination interest unless there is a widow or widower, in which case the ownership of one-half of the author's interest is divided among them; (C) the rights of the author's children and grandchildren are in all cases divided among them and exercised on a per stirpes basis according to the…
Library of Congress. Copyright Office, Copyright Law of the United States of America
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
Author is a generic name which can, like the name of all other professions, signify good or bad, worthy of respect or ridicule, useful and agreeable, or trash for the wastepaper-basket. * * * * * We think that the author of a good work should refrain from three things--from putting his name, save very modestly, from the epistle dedicatory, and from the preface. Others should refrain from a fourth--that is, from…
Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Author
Related ideas
- Pierre Bourdieu
- James Madison
- Roland Barthes
- Constitution of the United States
- United States
- Michel Foucault
- Copyright
Place in the tradition
Part of A. C. Grayling.