If two people
collaborate and produce a single picture, then as others have noted, they are
“joint authors” and they jointly own the associated copyright. Among other
things, that means a single author can unilaterally license the work to anyone
and on any terms the single author sees fit. (There is, however, a requirement
to share licensing revenue, if any, with the other coauthor(s).)
But you might
be asking if two people independently each draw two identical or near-identical
pictures. In that case, they each own the copyright in their respective work,
even if the works are damn near identical.
This is true even
without regard to timing. If you produce something (whether it’s a picture, a
poem, a song, etc.) and fifty years later I independently produce the identical
work, then (a) I’m not infringing your copyright, and in fact (b) I own the copyright to my work, even though
it happens to be identical to your work.
Of course, this is
kind of an academic statement. If the first work is popular, it’s damn near
impossible to prove the second work was produced independently. If the first
work isn’t popular, then in practice it’s unlikely there will ever be a real dispute.
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