Now that the 2014 Oscars have been awarded, there is something left to reflect upon, besides why Leonardo DiCaprio seems unable to bring home one those precious little statues.

It is a copyright-related question, and concerns what has become the most retweeted tweet ever – this being host Ellen DeGeneres' all-star selfie featuring Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong'o, Kevin Spacey and Jared Leto.

Looking at the video documenting the taking of this selfie, it is apparent that the person who pressed the shutter was most-blue-eyed man on earth, Bradley Cooper. DeGeneres, however, made arrangements for the photo, asked Cooper to take it and eventually published it on Twitter.

The Associated Press (AP) asked Ellen for permission to reproduce the photograph in question, as if she was the copyright owner. But is she?

Possible copyright owners could in fact be one of the following:

(a) Ellen DeGeneres;

(b) Bradley Cooper, as the actual author of the selfie;

(c) Ellen DeGeneres, Bradley Cooper and also the other subjects portrayed. This could be so under the doctrine of joint authorship, if one argued that all of them had "the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole";

(d) The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. This could be so under the doctrine of works made for hire, although one might wonder whether taking that selfie was "a work prepared by an employee [Ellen DeGeneres as Oscars host] within the scope of his or her employment" as per Section 101 of the US Copyright Act."

According to this article, the AP is probably safe in getting sign-off from DeGeneres, but it might be worth checking with Cooper's people as well.

But what do readers think? Who owns the copyright to the most retweeted tweet (and photograph) in history?

This article first appeared on the IPKat blog, which covers copyright, patent, trade mark, info-tech and privacy/confidentiality issues from a mainly UK and European perspective. Click here to follow IPKat on Twitter, and click here to follow Eleonora.