Who owns the copyright in freelance work in India? Assignment, licence or buyout

"Who owns it?" is the question most freelance deals never ask out loud. The client assumes it bought the work. The freelancer assumes they kept it. Both find out when the work turns up somewhere nobody discussed: a TV spot that was meant to be digital only, a jingle reused in a second campaign, a logo printed on merchandise.

The answer is a choice made when the deal is agreed, not a fact discovered afterwards. And under Indian law it has to be written down: an assignment of copyright is valid only in writing, signed by the person assigning it (Copyright Act, 1957, section 19).

Assignment, licence or buyout: the three ways rights pass

Copyright assignment: the client owns it

Once the service is paid for in full, ownership moves to the client: in every territory, in all media, including media not yet invented, for the full term of copyright. The client may adapt, edit and translate the work. It suits work that becomes part of the client's identity: a logo, a brand system, a corporate film.

Licence: the freelancer owns it, the client uses it

The freelancer keeps ownership and gives the client permission to use the work for a set period, territory and media, for the project only. The licence is exclusive (no one else may use the work in that scope) or non-exclusive. It is paid for in one of two ways:

• within the service fee (a licence with no royalty), or
• with a royalty: a share of the revenue the work earns, with regular statements and the right to audit them, or a fixed royalty sum.

It suits work with a life beyond one campaign: music, photography, illustration, footage. Use beyond the agreed period, territory or media needs the freelancer's written agreement: a renewal, at the renewal fee if one was set.

Buyout: ownership in a set territory, for a buyout fee

The client becomes the owner of the work in the territory the agreement names, in all media, for the full term of copyright, by paying a buyout fee on top of the service fee. Ownership passes when the buyout fee is paid in full. It differs from an assignment in two ways: it can be limited to one territory, and the ownership is priced separately from the work itself.

What stays with the author under Indian law

Some rights stay with the person who created the work, whatever the agreement says.

• Moral rights (section 57). Even after the copyright is assigned, the author keeps the right to claim authorship of the work, and to restrain, or claim damages for, any distortion, mutilation or modification of it that would harm their honour or reputation. Not displaying the work at all is not a breach of these rights.
• A share of royalties from films and sound recordings (sections 18 and 19). The author of a literary or musical work (lyrics or music, for example) included in a film (a "cinematograph film" in the Act) cannot assign or waive the right to an equal share, with the person the copyright was assigned to, of the royalties earned when the work is used in any way other than being shown with the film in a cinema hall. The same applies to a literary or musical work in a sound recording that is not part of a film, for any use. The right can pass only to the author's legal heirs or to a copyright society for collection, and the Act says any agreement to the contrary is void.

The Act also fills gaps an agreement leaves open. An assignment must name the rights, the duration and the territory. If no period is stated, it is taken to be five years; if no territory is stated, India. Rights the client does not use within a year lapse unless the assignment says otherwise. A medium that did not exist, or was not in commercial use, when the assignment was made is covered only if the assignment refers to it. Each of these is a reason to write the terms down in full.

What to settle, whichever arrangement is chosen

1. When the rights pass. On full payment, not on delivery. Until then the client may review the work and present it internally, and commercial use before payment is a material breach. If the client disputes a payment and takes the dispute to resolution in time, internal use can continue while it is settled, never commercial use.
2. The scope, in full. The territory, the period and the media, in words: "India, one year, digital and television" leaves nothing to guess. For an assignment or a buyout, whether media not yet invented are included, and that the rights do not lapse if the client does not use them for a year.
3. Exclusive or not. For a licence, whether the freelancer may license the same work to anyone else in that scope.
4. What is not included. Tools, presets, code and know-how the freelancer had before the job stay theirs; the client may use them only inside the delivered work. And whether raw files, working files and outtakes are owed: under our agreement they are not, unless they are listed as deliverables.
5. Credit and portfolio. The credit line the freelancer receives, and whether they may show the work in a portfolio: usually once it is released, without confidential details, and without overstating their role.
6. Renewal terms for extended use. For a licence, agree at the outset the renewal fee for a longer period, more territories or more media. Settled at the start, it is a price; left until the client already depends on the work, it becomes a negotiation.

How to choose

Five examples (fictional)

• Assignment. Tara designs the logo and brand system for a new chain of cafés. The chain needs to own them everywhere and adapt them for years. On payment of the fee, the copyright moves to the client; Tara keeps the right to be named as its designer, and the brush and type presets she built before the job.
• Licence. Dev photographs a product campaign under a one-year exclusive licence for India, in digital and print. When the brand wants the images on hoardings in the second year, that is a renewal at the agreed renewal fee.
• Licence, for a creator. Zoya, a content creator, makes a sponsored reel for a skincare brand, licensed for three months on the brand's own social media accounts. When the brand wants to run the reel as a paid ad elsewhere, that use is outside the licence: it needs Zoya's written agreement, at the renewal fee if one was set.
• Licence with a royalty. Nisha licenses her illustrations for a T-shirt range and receives a share of the revenue each quarter, with statements and the right to audit them. The illustrations remain hers.
• Buyout. A regional snack brand wants to own its new mascot in India. Kabir, the illustrator, agrees a buyout for India at a buyout fee on top of his service fee. Once it is paid, the brand owns the mascot in India; outside India, the rights stay with Kabir.

How The Goodwill Network handles it

When the agreement is created, one of four arrangements is chosen: full assignment (the default), a licence with royalties (a revenue share or a fixed sum), a buyout, or a licence with no royalty. A licence sets its period, territory and media, and an optional renewal fee; a buyout sets its territory and buyout fee. Every arrangement carries the protections above: no commercial use before full payment, pre-existing materials kept, moral rights kept, the statutory royalty share kept, and, if switched on, portfolio use. An assignment and a buyout are written so that they do not lapse if the work goes unused for a year. How our agreement handles ownership of the work →