A printing house allowed its customers to upload photos of T-shirts printed by it to its website. Among the photos uploaded by the customers were photos of T-shirts on which were printed works that were commissioned by an artist for printing on T-shirts, but without the artist giving his consent for these works to be displayed on the printing house’s website.
The court accepted the creator’s claim and ruled that he is the owner of the commissioned works and that the printing house must compensate him for copyright infringement. The creator is the first owner of the copyright in the work. However, in a work created by order, the creator is the owner unless otherwise agreed between the creator and the client, either explicitly or implicitly. In the absence of such agreement, the copyright will remain with the creator and the client will grant the client a license to use the work for a limited purpose for which it was commissioned. Here, the case concerns soldiers who commissioned paintings for the purpose of displaying them on their shirts. In the absence of any indication of the claim that the copyright was transferred to the clients, it remained with the creator, while the clients were granted a license to print the works on their shirts only. Consequently, the printing house had to obtain a license from the creator to display his works as part of the printing house’s online advertising, and their use in the absence of such agreement constitutes a violation of the creator’s copyright and entitles him to compensation.
