Know Your Rights

Knowing what your rights are when it comes to copyrighting can save you a lot of worry. The first thing you need to remember when it comes to putting your work on the Internet is, "DON'T PANIC!" Take a deep breath and learn what you can. This article can help get you started.


Non-Exclusive Rights or One Time Rights
"Non-exclusive" is pretty much self-explanatory. It means you give a site, or any other publication, the right to publish your work, but not for their exclusive use. These are the rights you grant to Writing.Com every time you post an item here. You can grant these rights to any number of publications simultaneously. Usually, these publications cater to different audiences, and unless it has been explicitly stated otherwise, you're free to use your own discretion in granting these rights to whomever you choose.

First Serial Rights
To grant these rights to a publisher, your work cannot have appeared in any other publication. These are the rights most often granted to book publishers, as well as newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and in some cases, e-zines. In the case of books, they retain these rights until the book goes out of print, at which time, all rights revert back to you. As you can imagine, this may or may not happen in your life time, depending on whether or not you wrote a best seller. For the other publications listed, these rights normally revert back to you after an agreed upon amount of time, though they do retain the right to reuse your articles or stories in a collective work, and storage in their archives.

Second Serial Rights
Sometimes referred to as Reprint Rights, these are non-exclusive and can be granted to more than one publication. This type most often refers to the rights you grant magazines, newspapers, etc., for stories or articles that have appeared in previous publications and don't normally come into play when book publishers are involved. An exception would be if a story first published in a magazine or similar publication, or an anthology, is to be included in a collection published by a different publisher. Check with the First Rights holder to find out if they are willing to allow you to edit it or if it must be included as is. In such a case, it is necessary to include a note of permission and reference to the original.

Subsidiary Rights
You've probably heard of these in relation to book publishing. These are all the rights you own aside from the right to publish your book. The right to publish the book is self-evident in granting "first time rights" to a publisher. Subsidiary rights have the potential to be extremely valuable when you consider movies, videos, books on tape, electronic publishing, book clubs, and more. These rights can be, and often are, sold to book publishers, but an agent or lawyer may be able to get you better deals later if you retain these rights. These are where most pitfalls lie in book contracts, in which case, it's in your best interest to have a lawyer go over the documents with you before you sign anything.

All Rights
In this situation, the only right you keep is in the telling of it. You can say "I wrote that," but the licensee you granted the rights to can publish your work in any form they choose. You can't even create further works based on the book you signed over without breaking copyright laws in the process. These rights never revert back to you. Authors generally try to avoid signing away all rights, and publishers generally try to gain them.

Television and Motion Picture Rights
These, as well as Dramatic Rights governing plays, are not sold immediately. Instead, they are optioned. What this means is that you and the company interested in your work agree on a price, and then you are paid a percentage (normally 10%) of that amount. It's much like a down payment. The company then has the option to produce your work. Normally the time limit is one year. If they have not exercised their option within the stipulated time, you're free to take your work elsewhere, and you get to keep the money you received. Remember that an option is not a promise. You can make some money this way, but it's not a guarantee that your script will ever be a made into a movie.

Electronic Rights
Plug those words into a search engine and just see all the information you get! This is a hot topic in the publishing world. Freelance writers are urged to retain these rights at all costs, while publishers are doing all they can to gain them. The Tasini vs. New York Times case is well-known in the industry.

A quick overview of the case is in order. The New York Times sold articles to Lexis-Nexus (a database storage system) without permission or payment to the authors. The Times felt electronic publishing fell within their first time publishing rights. The court didn't uphold that statement, but did rule in favor of the publishers by stating the sale to Lexis-Nexus was a collective work, and so was allowable. The ruling was overturned in Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and on June 25, 2001, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Second Circuit.

This means, be careful when signing contracts! Although it would seem the writers "won" the case, it has created a host of problems in trying to sign contracts with publishers determined to get the electronic rights. Since no rules have been specifically created concerning electronic rights, it's in your best interest to make sure you and the publisher are using the same definition.

For a better understanding of Electronic Rights, the following link provides valuable information. It is an interview with a Lloyd J. Jassin, a New York based publishing and entertainment attorney: http://copylaw.com/new_articles/electronicrights.html

Work For Hire
You retain no rights to the work. This has traditionally been implicit when hired as an employee for a television series and hasn't required a specific contract to enforce it. The work is the property of the employer. It is important to note that with Tasini and Napster (and others) bringing the electronic rights issue to the forefront of publishing, work for hire contracts may be required in situations formerly exempt. It's in your best interest to look into it. When you work for hire, you will most likely receive credit as the writer, but you never own the work.

In freelance situations though, if you have been hired as an independent contractor, you retain the rights unless you sign a "Work for Hire" contract, which gives the developer full rights. Ghost writing also falls into the Work for Hire category. In such cases, there is normally a confidentiality clause in the contract ensuring that you never disclose your involvement.

Copyright
With or without the symbol, as soon as you create something, you basically own the copyright on it (see Note below). Before you grant rights to anyone, you can proclaim, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The copyright is yours upon creation and/or upon first public showing of the story, poem, article, etc. Don't use this symbol though: (C). That's just a C in brackets and doesn't connote copyright. If you aren't able to create the symbol then simply write the words "copyright" instead. Just so you know, you copyright your work, but you can't copyright ideas or names. Names can be trademarked, not copyrighted, but ideas cannot be owned by any one person or group.

Note: Check your location to better understand when your work becomes copyrighted.

In the US, it is considered copyrighted the moment it is published, that is, sold, loaned, given, or in any way distributed for others to read. This means that as soon as you put a work up on the internet, it is automatically copyrighted.

In Canada, Britain, and France, the moment you create it (even if you never share it with anyone), it is copyrighted.

For all other locations, check with your copyright office. Most countries have free publications available on copyright laws, and you can request a copy.

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So, now that you have basic information as to what some of the various rights mean, you need a firm understanding about what publishing on this site means.

I used to have a section of advice here on how posting your work on Writing.com affects your various rights , but I've come across an article that is more comprehensive and fully developed in this regard. I strongly advise you to read it.

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Previously Published??!  [E] How does posting my work online affect my rights? by Jessiebelle™

If you have work worthy of a paycheck, there is not a site in the world that will stop you. Don't let rumor or lack of information frighten you into taking drastic actions that may not be in your best interest. Instead let them propel you toward finding definitive answers.

If you'd like to know more about publishing or copyright laws, a simple search with a search engine is a good start. Better though, would be to invest in a book written on the subject, one of which you'll find easy access to through the copyright link at the bottom of the screen. Also see Jessiebelle™ 's article above for some useful links. Check with the publications where you'd like to send your work and find out what rights they buy. For example, Alexandria Digital Literature (a Sci-Fi, Fantasy book publisher) accepts second serial rights.


Note: I am not a lawyer. This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Actions taken based on the information contained is at your own discretion. When it comes to rights of any kind, consult a lawyer.

For more articles on writing, see "IMPROVE YOUR WRITING" .