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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