Does my boss own copyright of my blog posts?

Advice for those new to the concepts of copyright
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asandor
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Does my boss own copyright of my blog posts?

Post by asandor »

Hi,
My boss recently let me go, as I was working remotely and he said it wasn't working for him. I wrote a number of blog posts for him, which included high-level articles that I wish to use as part of my writing portfolio. However, I just noticed that on the blog he's changed the "authour" from myself to my colleague, giving her credit for my work. Is there anything I can do about this? My understanding is that the company owns the copyright as I was an employee at the time of writing the articles. However, it seems wrong to me that he would give another colleague credit for these posts. Can someone please advise?
Thanks,
A.
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AndyJ
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Post by AndyJ »

Hi asandor,
It does sound like your employer may own the copyright in the blog posts if they were in support of his business. But you still remain the author of the posts and it is, for instance, your lifetime which will be used to calculate the length of the copyright term (currently the author's lifetime plus 70 years).
Unfortunately because the work was done as part of your employment you cannot insist on a credit as the author (see section 79(3)) but strangely, you can object to someone being falsely credited as the author (see section 84).
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
asandor
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Post by asandor »

Hi AndyJ,
This is extremely helpful. I'll be writing to my boss, citing Section 84 and asking him to remove my colleague's name. Thank you so much for your help!
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