By BarefootLawyers.
Musiizi has decided to write a new book every month so that he can be recognized a great student even after dropping out of the class because things were very hard to understand. What he has done is to get the writing of other students who he studied with and on every start of a chapter he add the words “Indeed” and at the last paragraph of the chapter he adds “therefore”.
Do all these ‘new writings’ qualify as new creations and works?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
By law, you are allowed to get a work of art, or publication and make something new based on it as long as you have got permission from the owner of the original work. This is called a derivative work. However, for your ‘new’ creation to qualify as derivative work deserving of legal protection, there must be enough change to the original work. For example if Musiizi’s new books were translated so that a person who is blind can be able to read, he could get legal protection for his new books. However if after changing a few words a person STILL cannot separate the original and new work,
You cannot add minor and irrelevant statements such as “indeed and therefore” to a person’s work and hope to be recognized with creating a new work out of it.
📷: Unsplash
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