Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law

Joint Works

Open source prides itself on being a cooperative development process. Communities of engineers work together over the Internet to write software. In this way, they may create collective works. But they may also, without realizing the difference, create an entirely different kind of work: The result of collaborative development may become a joint work rather than a collective work.

A “joint work” is a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole. (17 U.S.C. § 101.)

Obviously, joint authors of a work don't have to collaborate on each word of the final product. They can divide their activities to create a unified work—perhaps chapter ...