There are two kinds of cooperative works, which can be used separately, but not separately. A cooperative work that can be used alone refers to a work in which a co-author can use the part of his creation alone and enjoy copyright (including personal rights and property rights). For example, A, B and C wrote a collection of fairy tales including fifteen stories, and each of them wrote five stories. Party A, Party B and Party C all enjoy the copyrights of their five stories. In addition, Party A, Party B and Party C share the copyright of this collection of fairy tales. Another example is that A, B, C and D create a painting together. A draws pine trees, B draws bamboo, C draws plum blossoms, and D is responsible for the inscription. In this painting, Ding's calligraphy can be used alone and enjoys copyright. If the pine, bamboo and plum in the painting are not inseparable, Party A, Party B and Party C also enjoy the copyright of the pine, bamboo and plum they painted. Similarly, these four people enjoy the copyright of the whole painting. However, the authors of a cooperative work shall not infringe upon the copyright of the whole cooperative work when exercising their respective copyrights. For example, if one partner publishes a cooperative work in his own name without authorization, it will infringe upon the publishing right and the right of signature of other partners, and if the licensed remuneration is taken away by himself, it will also infringe upon the rights of other partners to receive remuneration. For another example, when the collection of fairy tales jointly created by Party A, Party B and Party C is about to be published, Party A and Party B will publish several wonderful stories created by themselves first, which greatly reduces the circulation of this collection of fairy tales and damages the predictable publishing remuneration of the co-authors.
A cooperative work that cannot be used alone means that although the co-authors have their own creations, they have been integrated into the work, and it is impossible to tell which collaborator wrote a part of the work. For example, four co-authors conceive the form, content, plot and structure of the work, and then write separately. This kind of work as a whole has only one copyright of the cooperative work.
The copyright of a cooperative work is jointly owned by the co-authors, and the distribution and exercise of their rights can be determined by the co-authors agreement. If there is no agreement, or if there is no agreed right in the agreement, it shall be made by the co-authors. For example, the right to publish and modify the agreed cooperative work shall be exercised by co-author A on his behalf, and co-author A may decide for himself, otherwise the right to publish and modify the work shall be exercised by co-author. The right to modify divisible works shall be exercised by the creators respectively. The remuneration licensed to others shall be distributed by the partners according to the agreement. If there is no agreement or the agreement fails, it shall be distributed according to the same share. Ambassador * * * of a cooperative work here refers to the exercise of copyright by the co-authors, which requires the unanimous consent of all the co-authors. Without consensus, each co-author has no right to exercise the copyright of the cooperative work alone, because the copyright of the cooperative work is shared by the co-authors. At the same time, however, co-authors should not abuse their rights and prevent other co-authors from exercising their copyright without justifiable reasons, thus affecting the social and economic benefits of their works. In this regard, Article 11 of the Regulations for the Implementation of the Copyright Law stipulates: "If a cooperative work cannot be used alone, and the co-authors have not reached an agreement on the exercise of copyright, neither party may prevent the other party from exercising it without justifiable reasons." The Copyright Law of Taiwan Province Province, China has similar provisions. Article 19 of the law stipulates that the author's personal rights of the same work shall not be exercised without the consent of all the authors. All authors, without justifiable reasons, shall not refuse to agree. * * * The author of the same work can choose a representative from among the authors to exercise the personality right of the work. Article 40 stipulates that the copyright owned by * * * shall not be exercised without the consent of all copyright owners; Without the consent of other copyright owners, each copyright owner may not transfer his due part to others or set a pledge for others. The copyright owner of each work shall not refuse to agree without justifiable reasons.