The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that the creator of The Friday the 13th screenplay could terminate his copyright grant to Horror Inc. (the producer of the movie franchise) and reclaim it. The horror show for employers is that if they do not assume ownership of their own copy (such as software code) at the inception of the copy's creation, they too can lose ownership under the Copyright Act's reclamation provision.
In Horror Inc. v. Miller, No. 18-3123-cv (Sept. 30, 2021), the Second Circuit affirmed that the original screenwriter of the horror film successfully terminated ownership rights that he had conveyed to the production company back in 1979. This decision hinged on whether the copyrighted work was created by its author as an employee of the production company or as an independent contractor. Employees create so called "works for hire" that are owned by the employer from its inception. Independent contractors create works that they own and can assign, subject to the right to terminate the assignment and reclaim their property...
