Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>
> >
> > I hadn't realized it was a work for hire. [Most contemporary books are
> > not published as "work for hire".]
>
> Most collective works commissioned by publishers are.

In this I actually do agree with Peter - There is a copyright in the
collection itself, and there is a copyright in the individual works.
Without reviewing the specifics of each contract with each individual,
we can't be certain if OUP owns both types of copyright or not, although
I suspect they do, with limited re-publishing rights to the authors.

The other critical issue is not who owns the copyrights, but if the
rights to derivative works have been otherwise assigned.

Again, not worth discussing beyond mentioning, in the hopes it will be
useful for someone here to have at least heard of the issue should you
ever need to negotiate such a matter. If you are in such a situation,
please make sure the ownership of the original work, plus the rights to
"derivative works" - an important legal term - are concluded to your
satisfaction.

Best,

Barry