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Employee Owned Creative Works: Produced Outside Scope of Employment

Independent Works

A Reliant employee is entitled to own the copyright of an Independent Work (even if such materials have a spiritual or Christian nature). They just need to meet the following requirements:

• • Independent Work has been presented in advance and approved in concept by the Reliant Executive Director or his designated representative.
  • Independent Work is created on the employee's personal time, with no support or resources, financial or otherwise, from Reliant.
  • Independent Work is not created or developed for a specific Reliant job assignment, is not based on a Reliant job assignment, or is not otherwise created or developed specifically for the Reliant ministry in any way.
  • Independent Work is not advertised or promoted using Reliant resources during the term of the Reliant employee's employment.
  • Independent Work does not reference the employee as an employee of Reliant (unless previously approved by the Reliant Executive Director or his designated representative).
  • Examples of uses of Reliant support or resources include, but are not limited to: the use of Reliant facilities, funds, work-time, equipment, or supplies
  • The use of "on-the-job" time, personnel, or Reliant staff,
  • Any use of Reliant funds, property, or underlying materials

The employee will be considered to have not relied upon Reliant resources if the Independent Work is created, edited, developed and published solely on the employee's personal time (after hours, during vacation, or during approved unpaid leave), and using only their resources, without the assistance of any Reliant staff, facilities, or other Reliant resources.

Ownership of Derivative Works

Reliant recognizes that new works created from existing Reliant-owned Works (known as "Derivative Works",), may be beneficial to Reliant and its mission. Reliant also recognizes that there may be cases where its resources may not be best utilized in the creation or production of such Derivative Works. Even in that instance, however, Reliant might still desire such a Derivative Work to be available to the public.

An example of a Derivative Work would be the development of a new book (Independent Work) from underlying sermons or sermon materials that were legally owned by Reliant because they were produced in the course of normal employment. Essentially, Derivative Works are combinations of Reliant Works and Independent Works.

For anyone interested in creating a Derivative Work, Reliant will follow these requirements:

• • If an employee wants to create a Derivative Work derived from an existing Reliant-owned Work (for his or her personal benefit and not as part of his or her Reliant job responsibilities), the Reliant employee needs to simply request permission and negotiate ownership rights with the Reliant Executive Director, or his designated representative. This needs to be done before creating a Derivative Work.
  • If Reliant agrees that such a Derivative Work should be created for Reliant, it may decide to assign a Reliant employee to create the Derivative Work. In that case, the Derivative Work created will be deemed a "work made for hire" and Reliant will need to legally own the copyright in the Work.
  • If Reliant determines it does not want to create such a Derivative Work, but would still like to see that Derivative Work created and distributed for the public, it may negotiate with the Reliant employee to provide a license to that employee to create such Derivative Work.
  • Ownership rights, credits, royalty interests, and all incidents of copyright ownership, as well as licensing rights for Reliant, will then be determined on a case-by-case basis by the Reliant Executive Director, or his designated representative, in consultation with legal counsel.

Notification and Determining the Creative Work Status

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_{1 Reliant Work(s) developed or prepared by independent contractors or volunteers at Reliant's request will be considered "works made for hire" under specific guidelines set forth under United States copyright law (17 U.S.C §101 et seq.) and cases, and/or assigned to Reliant by contract or written agreement.}

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Standards of Conduct sections