A work for hire is a work whose legal author, from the moment of creation, is the party who commissioned or employed the creator rather than the creator themselves.
The mechanism
Ordinarily the person who creates a work owns the copyright and can later recover it. Under a valid work-for-hire arrangement, authorship vests in the commissioning party at the outset, which means there is nothing to revert. This is why the clause is one of the most consequential single sentences in a music agreement.
A worked example
A producer paid a flat fee under a work-for-hire agreement has sold the copyright itself, not licensed it, and retains no writer's share unless the agreement separately grants one.
There is nothing to revert if you were never the author.
What it is confused with
- Exclusive licence An exclusive licence transfers USE, often for a term, and the creator still owns the copyright. Work for hire transfers AUTHORSHIP from the start, and there is nothing to get back.
- Reversion Reversion is a right attached to ownership. A genuine work for hire has no reversion because the creator was never the owner.
Why it matters
It is the difference between selling a copy of your work and selling your authorship of it, and the two are frequently presented in the same paragraph at the same price.
Sources: US Copyright Office
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Related: Recoupment · Black box royalties · 360 deal