Who owns/how is ownership of intellectual property divided?

Question

A few years back, I met a girl who had the idea of making a fantasy world together. Since she was an artist and I was a writer, it seemed like a good combination.

Together we planned out the details in depth:

Size/scale of the planet

The name of the planet and various place names

The name and nature of the goddess presiding over the world

All she did on her own she created the visualization of the map.

However, I went much further. I created:

The species structure

The characters

The plot

The actual writing of the story

Flash foreword to today. It has been a long time since we worked together, but I've still continued to work and edit the story.

Now I want to release the story for adaptation into a novel/graphic novel and possibly a radio drama. However, she doesn't want to see it be released to the public.

So here's my question:

Even though we laid the framework together, is the story still legally mine to where I could publish it without her consent?

If not, what can I do to alter it so that I can publish it on my own?

Answer 1

If you jointly created part of the work, with the intent to create a joint work, then you are joint owners of that part of the work. As such, you have full and unrestricted copyright of the work and can do with it as you please, as can she.  However, you may run into difficulties if you try to use her visualization of the map in any recognizable form that includes her artistic input (as opposed to an ordinary, geographic interpretation of the world defined in your story).