a legal term entailing the complete assignment of the copyright is a copyrightable work. The worker assigns all rights to their work to the client for whom the work is performed. The client paying for the work-for-hire, NOT the worker is considered the author for the purposes of copyright. See IANAL, NOLO Press, WFH.
A term used in freelance contracts that gives complete ownership of a writer's work to the publisher, including copyright. It's likened to being a full-time-hire, but without the benefits of health insurance, pension plan and other benefits.