Let's say I commission an artist to draw my characters, that nobody's ever drawn before, ever. They only exists in my mind and in my text files. Wikipedia says:
Do I qualify as the character creator because they're my characters, or does the artist get credit for it?Copyright protection is available to the creators of a range of works including literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works. Recognition of fictional characters as works eligible for copyright protection has come about with the understanding that characters can be separated from the original works they were embodied in and acquire a new life by featuring in subsequent works.
And what if he wants to print some of those characters and sell t-shirts: does he get to do that implicitly, or some kind of agreement is needed?
What about music? Do I own an OST if I'm paying for it? I see a big difference between music and drawing, because I'll say "My character is blonde, with the anime pointy tooth and bathes in the blood of her enemies", but I can't give such directions about music.
Can someone enlighten me or link me to some sources?
P.s. Lawyers are not in the budget right now, so there's that.