Beckingham v Hodgens [2003] [2003] ECDR 6 (Ch D)

• Claimant was professional fiddle player who had been hired for session recording of song ‘Young at Heart’.

• Claimed he had composed violin part which featured prominently in song, and as such was joint author.

Held

• Claimant was a joint author.

First Instance 

1. On facts, violin part is sufficiently significant and original

2. Violin part is ‘not separate’ from work as a whole.

   • This because violin part would not make sense without what is in work already

Court of Appeal

3. On facts, there was collaboration

   • To show collaboration must be ‘joint labouring in furtherance of a common design

   • However this does not mean there must be intention to have joint authorship

     • Simply requires that the joint authors engaged in a process of jointly creating work in question, rather than Claimant merely making additions to an already complete piece