Authors: Beware of Copyright

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

This article caught my interest because it describes some of the boobytraps about copyright in the digital age:

Authors: Beware of Copyright

When an author signs a publication contract, insofar as it contains strict and traditional copyright notices, he is pretty much signing his life away. It used to be that the publisher would maintain control only so long as the book is in print. Today, with digital printing, this means forever: your lifetime plus 70 years.

During this time, you can't even quote significant portions of your own writing without permission from the publisher, and you could find yourself paying the publisher for the rights. You can't read your own book aloud and sell the results. You certainly can't give a journal a chapter.

Comments

Yes!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

That's true, and it's creating a problem of cultural impoverishment as the stream of creativity ceases to feed into the public domain.

In other words, every time Mickey Mouse is about to expire, Disney throws millions of dollars around until an extension is granted. This is not good.

Re: Yes!

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

I used to work for a publisher. NOTHING was ever "Out of Print."

It was "out of stock."

Didn't matter that we had NO intention of printing more any time soon. We lost the rights to exclusively print the book if we slipped at any time.

Re: Yes!

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

I wrote a paper in grad school on why satire should be granted the same protections as parody in fair use cases. The best phrase I came up with was "cultural iconography."

Satirists (as one example) do not have access to the current cultural iconography, which renders them less effective at what they are trying to do.

Re: Yes!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Satirists, like poets, were once the companions of kings and highly respected in some societies. They helped prevent powerful people from becoming too corrupt, and mockery fit neatly into the system of checks and balances.

In America, powerful people don't like to be mocked. It's probably not an accident the satirists are sidelined and deprived of tools. We're lucky parody survived as a protected category.

[writestufflee.livejournal.com]

Nothing says you have to sign a contract that's this restrictive. The big mistake most first-time authors make is not getting the contract vetted by a lawyer. Of course the publishing co. will try to grab extensive exclusive rights; that doesn't mean you have to give them what they want. There's no law that says the publication rights can't revert to you after first publication, or you can't retain the serial rights, or foreign rights or whatever. It's up to the author to negotiate the rights they keep. Any author who gives away their own copyright like this is crazy already.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

In theory, you're right. Anyone can walk away from a bad contract.

In practice, walking away from a bad contract usually means you don't sell the piece at all. Publishers usually have the upper hand in negotiations. If you won't sign their abusive contract, there are other people out there who will. They may not write as well -- just look at what's on the shelves these days! -- but many publishers prefer a mediocre but submissive writer to a good writer who demands fair treatment.

Sometimes a good agent, if you can get one, can remove the worst parts of a contract. But the industry trend is for terrible contracts, and that's a problem.

Some publishers, especially small and alternative presses, are much more writer-friendly and deserve recognition for that. But they're called "alternative" for a reason.