Rodney said:
Let's keep to the topic of this thread, guys
Fair point, though I thought a couple of last points needed clarification. I've left most of this alone as I don't see the point in discussing it here (or anywhere else for that matter).
As for the topic of the thread itself... I think the collective knowledge of the forum has (for the moment) been exhausted on the topic - unless someone comes along with a more definitive answer.
The two questions were:
1) Do you need to do anything special to put (C) Company Name on a work?
2) Does this change the way the work is copyrighted (can you still protect it in a court of law as an individual for example)?
Several people have said it shouldn't make a difference. Personally my opinion is that it actually does.
For example. We all know that forming different types of companies (LLC vs. sole proprieter vs. etc.) gives you different legal rights, and different legal consequences (personal bankruptcy protection for example). We also (should) all know that you can't just register the business and do whatever you want. If you don't have a separate company and personal banking account for example, you can actually be found to be acting as a sole trader and have your personal bankruptcy protection revoked. You have to conduct yourself as a proper business in order to be treated by the government as such. What that means is, in general, you need to be treated as an employee (even if that's at Director/CEO level) of the company. Which means if you're assigning copyright to the company, it should be either already covered as work for hire, or to do it above board you would need to sign over the copyright to the company. You and the company are not the same thing, so it can't be assumed that what is copyrighted to one is copyrighted to the other. (also, if the company goes bankrupt something copyrighted in your name would be a personal asset, and something copyrighted to the company would be a business asset... but if that personal asset should have been a company asset... well we're back to that naughty naughty mixing then aren't we?)
Now, this isn't going to affect most people because they're not running as a corporation. My point is it proves that there are
potentially consequences for how you assign your copyright - and given that, I would be careful about what you do with it in case there are others you aren't aware of.
I've also read in the past of the length of time a copyright lasts being different for a corporation vs. an individual. It (conjecture) might make a difference in a court case over damages.
The one thing I wouldn't worry about is whether or not this removes your ability to protect the work in court. Either the (C) Company Name is found to have no basis, so you can still protect it as the individual who owns the copyright, or it is found to have a basis and your company can protect it as the company who owns the copyright. The copyright won't dissolve into the aether.
I understand that these points are vague and not particularly backed up. I'm not trying to claim what someone should or shouldn't do - my point is that
if it was me in this situation (and that's all you can really ask a forum member to talk of) I would be doing further research (quite possibly talking to a lawyer) because my opinion is that this situation is actually a lot more complicated than people give it credit.
To put it simply, you are not your business and your business is not you - be careful about treating either as if it was simply the other.