[balls187]

Good point.

I should have said--did the defense actually determine that the sculptor retained their copyright, given the work was commissioned by a casino.

[briandear]

Well if the casino did own the copyright, the Post Office still had to pay up under the same exact law. A casino passing up $3.5 million? You bet they would have sued hard and probably would have won more.

[slavik81]

That's normal for commissioned works. When you hire a contractor, by default they retain copyright over whatever they create.

https://copyright.uslegal.com/copyright-ownership/commission...

[true_religion]

What about “work for hire”?

[slavik81]

From the link:

> Work made for hire and commissioned work are different from one another because work made for hire involves an employee and commissioned work is executed by an independent contractor.