My understanding of this is not comprehensive, but if it's a work-for-hire situation no, they don't own the copyright, the studio does. Matt Groening did The Simpsons as a cartoon before Fox picked it up; a smart entertainment attorney would have insisted on that credit & some level of control over content/spinoffs, but it's not surprising that Fox retained copyight on show-related products. A friend of mine, while employed by Saban, wrote the theme music for Power Rangers; as an at-the-time employee, he doesn't even get royalties/residuals (although he later sued for some part of that money).
no subject
Date: 31 Mar 2010 01:34 pm (UTC)