Does a joint author have to contribute to the form of a work?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Neudorf v. Nettwerk Productions Ltd., 1999 CanLII 7014 (BC SC):
The English and Canadian cases are consistent in requiring that a putative joint author contribute expression and not merely ideas to the work. For example, in Stuart v. Barrett, [1994] E.M.L.R. 448 (Ch.D.), the plaintiff was a drummer who had been invited to join a popular music group of which the defendants were already members. The plaintiff alleged that he co-authored various songs. The headnote reports that the court held, inter alia, that “a person with an original idea was not the author of any work composed by another who made use of that idea unless the person with the idea contributed to the form of the work."
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