provides a useful foundation. There, we examined the meaning of "work" as the first step in analyzing joint authorship of the movie Malcolm X. The Copyright Act provides that when a work is "prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole," the work becomes a "joint work" with two or more authors. 17 U.S.C. § 101 (emphasis added). Garcia unequivocally disclaims joint authorship of the film.
In Aalmuhammed, we concluded that defining a "work" based upon "some minimal level of creativity or originality . . . would be too broad and indeterminate to be useful."[1] 202 F.3d at 1233 (internal quotation marks omitted). Our animating concern was that this definition of "work" would fragment copyright protection for the unitary film Malcolm X into many little pieces:
So many people might qualify as an "author" if the question were limited to whether they made a substantial creative contribution that that test would not distinguish one from another. Everyone from the producer and director to casting director, costumer,
- ↑ Although the ultimate issue in Aalmuhammed pertained to joint authorship, the definition of "work" was essential, just as in our case, to the analysis. 202 F.3d at 1233–34; see also Richlin v. Metro-GoldwynMayer Pictures, Inc., 531 F.3d 962, 968 (9th Cir. 2008) (relying on Aalmuhammed in reasoning that to determine authorship, the court must first determine the "work" to be examined).
