copyright

Quick Link: Copyrighting Our Books

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

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Copyrighting Our Books

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

When I was first signing a book contract in 2008, I remember that the industry generally scoffed at writers worried about copyright issues. Some writers wondered if they should register a copyright on their manuscripts before submitting them to agents and publishers. There was even a line of thinking that authors could simply mail their manuscripts to themselves to acquire a ‘poor man’s copyright’ through the postal service.

Acquiring a copyright to send work to a reputable agent or publisher was probably overkill. But the problem now is more insidious: there are cases where retailers like Amazon have challenged writers to prove a book’s content is theirs after receiving challenges from unscrupulous writers.

I’d been meaning to copyright my books for some time, but it became a higher priority after the copyright challenges became news. And I hopped right over to the US Copyright site after reading a post on Joanna Penn’s blog: an interview with attorney Kathryn Goldman. I recommend you read or listen to the entire post.

One of the things Kathryn Goldman brought up in the interview is that the US Copyright is a better deal than one in the UK, for instance. It’s $35 for a copyright in the US for the life of the copyright (a one-time fee). In the UK, it’s £65 for 5 years.  According to Goldman, “if you have a registration in the United States and your country is a signatory to the Berne Convention, then you’re entitled to the protections that that country offers based on the U.S. registration.” That’s important information for international writers.

Read the full post on Elizabeth Spann Craig

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: Pros & Cons: Referencing the Real World in Our Story

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

The wonderful Jamie Gold goes over the potential and pitfalls of using real world references in your story. A must read if you have ever considered doing this!

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Pros & Cons: Referencing the Real World in Our Story

by Jami Gold

I’ve often mentioned that I appreciate questions from readers (even though I can’t answer them all, especially with my health issues this year). Every question gives me ideas for potential blog posts, and today I’d like to thank Lee Green for the idea for this post (and Julie Sade for encouraging me to write it). *smile*I’ve run into the issue Lee mentions within my work as well, so I’m glad her question forced me to think deeper about the pros and cons. As with many things, we might answer one way at first glance but later discover a different angle that changes our opinion.

Lee asked:

“In a WIP, is it OK to have the lead female reading and maybe referring to a book written by a real life current author and naming that author, title of book and maybe a sentence from the book?”

That is a fantastic question that got my brain spinning in multiple directions. On the surface, it’s a question about copyright (and maybe the right to publicity), but deeper down, it’s a question about the relatability of our story and character. Let’s take a closer look…

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: “Busting” Some Popular Copyright Myths

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Over at Writer’s In The Storm, Suzan Spann recognizes that we are not all lawyers and that there are some common misunderstandings about copyright that she hopes to clear up. Check it out. 

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“Busting” Some Popular Copyright Myths

Copyright

By Susan Spann

JULY 8TH, 2016

Copyright law can be confusing for authors, especially when it comes to issues like when (and whether) to register copyright in a manuscript, and what to do if you use a pseudonym. While authors need to understand the basics of copyright, myths and disinformation abound (especially on the Internet).

Today, let’s take a look at some popular myths (and truths) about copyright in novels and other creative works:

Myth #1: You have to register copyright as soon as you finish your manuscript.

False. Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is not a legal requirement for copyright ownership. Copyright attaches to “qualifying works*” automatically at the time of their creation.

Copyright registration is intended to protect “published works” – so authors should make sure that their works are registered with the copyright office within 3 months after initial publication.

(*Short stories, novellas, novels, anthologies, poetry, and similar fiction and non-fiction works all generally qualify for copyright protection.)

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Joss Whedon, Lionsgate Hit With Copyright Lawsuit Over 'The Cabin in the Woods'

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This article by Austin Siegemund-Broka originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter on 4/14/15. The plaintiff in the case is a self-published author.

The author of a 2006 novel has accused the ‘Avengers’ director and ‘Cabin’ director Drew Goddard of stealing his idea.

With just weeks until his box-office victory lap for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon is now facing a lawsuit accusing him of stealing the idea for the 2012 meta-horror movie The Cabin in the Woods.

Whedon produced and co-wrote the script for Cabin with director Drew Goddard, a writer on Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a fanboy favorite in his own right, with credits that include Netflix’s Daredevil (and reportedly may soon include Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man projects). Whedon and Goddard are named as defendants, along with Lionsgate and Whedon’s Mutant Enemy production company, in the complaint filed Monday in California federal court.

In the complaint, Peter Gallagher (no, not that Peter Gallagher) claims Whedon and Goddard took the idea for The Cabin in the Woods from his 2006 novel The Little White Trip: A Night In the Pines. He’s suing for copyright infringement and wants $10 million in damages.

 

Read the full article, which includes a link to the full legal filing, on The Hollywood Reporter.

 

Authors: Don't Scream "Piracy!", Then Turn Around & Pay Thieves To Represent You Or Your Work

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This post by Publetariat founder April L. Hamilton originally appeared on her Indie Author Blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

It happens again and again: authors, both indie and mainstream-published, crying foul over piracy of their work. They grab their virtual torches and pitchforks and take to social media to spread the word and their righteous indignation over this or that file sharing site offering their ebooks for free download.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found at least a few of those same authors paying to list their books with a promotional service that steals intellectual property for use in its ads:

When the ad pictured above started showing up all over Facebook this week, I was both shocked and angered. I have censored the service’s name in the image because I don’t want to send any business their way or promote their service, even inadvertently. But if you’re on Facebook and regularly post or share about books, ebooks and publishing, you have probably seen the original ad yourself.

I was shocked by the blatant theft and use of Charles M. Schulz’s intellectual property for purposes of advertising a service that is in no way endorsed by the Schulz estate. I was shocked that the thief did not even bother to include Schulz’ signature, to at least give credit to the creator of the iconic image of Snoopy at the typewriter. I was shocked that this ad was being run in such a hugely popular online forum, showing flagrant disregard for intellectual property laws.

I was angered that an author services provider—a company ostensibly in the business of helping creators of intellectual property—would do such a thing. I was angered that many authors whose names are familiar to me (some of whom are quick to point the intellectual property theft finger at ebook piracy sites) have books listed with this service, and probably have no idea they’ve thrown their lot in with an intellectual property thief.

I was angrier still when, after sending a private message to this outfit’s Facebook fan page earlier in the week, today I received a response claiming total ignorance of what intellectual property was stolen, and from whom.

As some already know, I’ve recently started developing and releasing my own Android apps, and I’ve put in a lot of work creating my own, original artwork and images for use in those apps and a lot of money paying for artwork I’ve had custom-created for use in my apps. The same is true of my books, and I’m sure many of you reading this have also paid good money for proper use of intellectual property, because it’s the right thing to do.

AUTHORS: please do not throw your lot in with any person or service with so little regard for intellectual property rights. You are, after all, in the business of creating intellectual property and it’s incredibly hypocritical to let an intellectual property thief represent you or your work in any way, once you have been made aware of this situation. If you have a book listed with this outfit (and if you’re not sure, email me at indieauthor @ gmail dot com and I’ll share the name of the company) I urge you to immediately remove your books from their listings and demand your money be refunded, and then spread the word about this company to all your author friends.

 

Protecting Your Copyrights Online

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This post by Susan Spann originally appeared on Writers In The Storm on 3/13/15.

In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to Mos Eisley spaceport as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” and adds, “we must be careful.”

Obi-Wan’s wisdom applies to the Internet too.

Regardless of your publishing path, if you write for publication, you should take steps to protect your copyrighted work against Internet-based infringement.

Today, we take a look at how to do that. While no single post can cover all of the ways to protect your work online, here are some tips on things all authors can do to protect and enforce their copyrights:

Perform Regular Copyright / Infringement Searches. Every author should search the Internet regularly (at least once a month) for: (a) the author’s name, (b) the author’s published titles, and (c) any other words, phrases, or marks which might reveal infringement or illegal copying of the author’s work. For example, my searches include “Susan Spann,” “Shinobi Mystery,” and the titles of each of my published works (as well as “Flask of the Drunken Master” which doesn’t release until July. Using quotation marks around the search terms returns only those results which contain the exact phrase within the quotes.

Internet searches are important even if you also use Google Alerts or another monitoring service. While effective, automated alerts don’t catch all infringement, and can’t be relied upon to screen for all uses of an author’s work on the Internet.

 

Read the full post on Writers In The Storm.

 

The Indie Author's Guide to Rights

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This post by Daniel Lefferts originally appeared on Publishers Weekly on 12/15/14.

As self-published works grow in popularity, indie authors are increasingly in a position to market their book to foreign publishers or to agents and producers working in film, TV, and theater. But before authors can do that, they need know their rights.

Copyrighting Your Work

Without the guidance of literary agents, indie authors have to take extra-special care to protect their rights—including copyright—when negotiating with a self-publishing service.

Seth Dellon, director of new product development at PubMatch, a rights management resource for publishers, agents, and authors, says that, while indie authors technically own the copyright to any original work they produces automatically, it’s worth it for them to register their copyright. “You want to make sure that you register everything that you do,” he says, adding that the act of publishing itself constitutes “proof that you [own] it.”

 

Read the full post on Publishers Weekly.

 

Do We Live In A Post-Plagiarism World?

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This post by Derek Murphy originally appeared on his CreativIndie site on 12/9/14.

Today I read two articles.

The first is the plagiarism case indie author Rachel Ann Nunes raised against Tiffanie Rushton, an elementary school teacher. Tiffanie allegedly took Rachel’s self-published book, added some sex scenes and republished it as her own.

Rachel has already spent $20,000 in court fees and is using PRweb.com to get the word out so she can raise $100,000 extra to continue the lawsuit.

The article laments that, while traditionally published authors are backed by publishers with deep pockets, for indie authors there is nothing they can do.

But I’m not taken in by this sob story.

Yes it sucks.

It’s brutal to have somebody steal your work and try to sell it as theirs.

But it’s also pretty simple and easy to get Amazon to remove the book in question.

A couple of emails and Rachel could have gotten Tiffanie’s book removed from Amazon and from other online ebook stores.

So what’s the lawsuit for?

 

Read the full post on CreativIndie.

 

The Copyright Naughty List

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This post by Susan Spann originally appeared on the Writers in the Storm blog on 12/10/14.

Happy Holidays!

‘Tis the season to stay off the copyright “naughty list,” so I’m here to share a few #PubLaw tips for avoiding copyright infringement in your holiday blogging and social media celebrations!

When celebrating online this holiday season, keep these helpful rules in mind:

SONGS (AND LYRICS) ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

At the holidays, it’s tempting to re-post the lyrics to favorite carols or celebratory songs, either on Facebook, on a blog, or on other social media sites. Unfortunately, lyric-sharing often violates the copyright of the lyricist or songwriter, because lyrics are protected by copyright, as are novels, short stories and poems.

Posting an excerpt (no more than 2-3 lines) is often permitted as “fair use,” especially when the quoted work runs at least 30 lines. However, there is no absolute test for fair use, and no definitive test for when you’ve used too much of a copyrighted work. The legal test is “facts and circumstances,” based on several factors (so anyone who tells you “X lines is ok, but more is not” isn’t telling you the absolute legal truth.

 

Read the full post on Writers in the Storm.

 

Prose and Cons: A Plagiarist Faces the Judge

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This post by John Doppler originally appeared on The John Doppler Effect on 9/2/14.

To an author, there are few crimes more heinous than plagiarism. Every author knows the agony of the untold story, the grueling birth of a novel, the joy of finally bringing that creation into the world and holding it up for all to see.

Having that joy stolen from you is an unspeakable cruelty.

That’s why Rachel Ann Nunes’ plight has struck a chord with so many authors. Rachel’s novel, A Bid for Love, was stolen, mutilated, and repackaged as a sloppy knock-off titled The Auction Deal.

Rachel’s work has already hit #1 on the Amazon bestseller lists for Christian fiction, but the plagiarist believed she could improve it by injecting explicit sex scenes into the work. She then offered the book for sale under her pen name, Sam Taylor Mullens, and pretended that it was her own, original creation.

The plagiarist tried to take credit for Rachel’s inventiveness, hard work, and perseverance. It was a cowardly act, but it paled in comparison to what followed.

 

An impersonal crime becomes personal

It’s said that character is what you do when nobody is looking. Mullens felt invisible and untouchable behind her pseudonym, and her true character was quickly revealed.

First, she attempted to deflect criticism by offering a bewildering series of lies: that she had permission to use the work; that the work had been given to her by a mysterious, nameless man who later died in a car crash; that she was the niece of the CEO of Rachel’s publisher; and that she had collaborated with Rachel to write the book.

When those flimsy lies failed to stand up to scrutiny, she turned to a campaign of harassment and vicious libel against Rachel.

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes more details on how the plagiarist was caught, what charges she’s facing, and how other authors can help the case, on The John Doppler Effect.

 

Poor Man’s Copyright – Newsome v. Oldham

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This post by Pete Morin originally appeared on his site on 6/24/14.

Hardly a week goes by without a discussion on the Internet about the legendary “poor man’s copyright.” This theory posits that an author may prove he is the creator of a work at a particular point in time by mailing himself a copy of the work, which is kept in the sealed envelope until such time as it may be needed. With the near ubiquity of email and the use of the Internet (especially by authors intent on selling their work), the old mailing tactic might just as easily be employed by one emailing himself a file.

With the advent of the Lanham Act, such quaint tactics are no substitute for registration with the United States Copyright Office, a process that takes minutes and costs only $35.

Nevertheless, the time may come when an author whose work is unregistered would discover her novel to have been stolen – perhaps by an unscrupulous beta reader – and fraudulently registered. Upon discovery, that unfortunate author might seek to register her own manuscript (as she must in order to maintain an action for infringement), which the USCO will not approve in light of the prior registration. Alternatively, the fraudulent author might (with breathtaking temerity) maintain an infringement action against the true creator.

How would the victimized author fare in her quest to prove she is the original artist?

 

Click here to read the full post on Pete Morin’s site.

 

The Poorest Man's Copyright

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This post by Lily Hay Newman originally appeared on Slate on 5/4/14.

Do nothing.

ou could have heard about the “poor man’s copyright” anywhere: from an older relative, from a friend, from a high school English teacher. They find out that you’ve been working on a novel and they want to help, so they tell you to mail it to yourself once it’s done. That way, even if you don’t do anything with the novel for years (or if those snooty literary agents and publishing houses are incapable of recognizing genius when they see it), you still have a copy bearing an official federal date—and no one can steal your spot on the New York Times best-seller list.

It’s a nice idea, but the problem with the poor man’s copyright is that it doesn’t work. The humorless federal copyright office explains on its website, “The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a ‘poor man’s copyright.’ There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.”

But if you’re a starving artist, don’t worry. Copyright legislation that took effect on Jan. 1, 1978, dictates that all works are automatically copyrighted from the time that they are created and “fixed” in some recognizable way.

 

Click here to read the full post on Slate.

 

Scribd's New Ebook Subscription Service: Partnering with Publishers, Profiting from Piracy

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This post, by Michael Capobianco, originally appeared on Writer Beware on 1/9/14.

I was contemplating what to write for my first Writer Beware blog post, when a subject popped up out of the blue, packed with all kinds of fascinating questions.

Some of you may remember when SFWA tangled with the online “digital library” Scribd back in 2007. Scribd was loaded with unauthorized uploads of copyrighted material, but SFWA screwed up big time by sending a sort-of DMCA notice (it wasn’t really) to get works by many sf writers removed from the site. It was an embarrassment for SFWA, and over time made it less and less likely that the organization would do anything directly about illegal uploads, even though a plan had been developed to do so for members who had specifically authorized SFWA to act as their agent.

Since everything to do with online piracy left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth, I decided I would not go looking for illegally uploaded copies of my or other authors’ works, and I didn’t check to see if Scribd was following through on the promises it made at the time to provide real-time checking of works uploaded to the service.

Jump forward six years to now. The subject of Scribd came up on a SFWA forum as part of a controversy that I needn’t go into here, and I decided that it was finally time to check it out.

Six years has made a big difference. Scribd has set out to become a full-fledged bookstore to compete with Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and takes it one step farther with the addition of an all-you-can-eat subscription service that allows access to an unlimited number of ebooks for $8.99 a month. They are now partnering with HarperCollins and various other publishers, such as Smashwords, E-Reads, and Rosetta Books, with the promise of more to come. They cover a lot of ground; not only do they sell ebooks and subscriptions, they offer what look like unauthorized “previews” of many other books, with links to authorized retailers.

But finally, beneath all the new things, the old Scribd–offering not-necessarily-legal user uploads of copyrighted works–is still there. Only now Scribd has monetized them, since you can only see a “preview” of the material for free, and must be a paid subscriber to access the whole unauthorized upload.

 

Click here to read the full post on Writer Beware

 

10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained

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This post, by Brad Templeton, originally appeared on Templetons.com.

Note that this is an essay about copyright myths. It assumes you know at least what copyright is — basically the legal exclusive right of the author of a creative work to control the copying of that work. If you didn’t know that, check out my own brief introduction to copyright for more information. Feel free to link to this document, no need to ask me. Really, NO need to ask.

1) “If it doesn’t have a copyright notice, it’s not copyrighted.” This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. The default you should assume for other people’s works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure.

It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is. This applies to pictures, too. You may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come upon something unknown, you shouldn’t post that either.

The correct form for a notice is:

“Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]”

You can use C in a circle © instead of “Copyright” but “(C)” has never been given legal force. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places. In some countries it may help preserve some of the “moral rights.”

 

2) “If I don’t charge for it, it’s not a violation.” False. Whether you charge can affect the damages awarded in court, but that’s main difference under the law. It’s still a violation if you give it away — and there can still be serious damages if you hurt the commercial value of the property. There is a USA exception for personal copying of music, which is not a violation, though courts seem to have said that doesn’t include widescale anonymous personal copying as Napster. If the work has no commercial value, the violation is mostly technical and is unlikely to result in legal action. Fair use determinations (see below) do sometimes depend on the involvement of money.

 

3) “If it’s posted to Usenet it’s in the public domain.” False. Nothing modern and creative is in the public domain anymore unless the owner explicitly puts it in the public domain(*). Explicitly, as in you have a note from the author/owner saying, “I grant this to the public domain.” Those exact words or words very much like them.
 

 

Click here to read the rest of the post on Templetons.com.

 

Signs of Acceptance Among Agents

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Excerpted from “It’s The End Of Publishing As We Know It: Do You Feel Fine?” by Nathan Bransford, a literary agent with the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown, Ltd.:

Well, in my opinion there are two meta forces at work in book publishing at the moment. With the closing of bookstores, fewer titles being ordered by the bookstores that are left, and more people buying their books in stores where there are fewer titles available (i.e. box stores like WalMart), there is tremendous pressure on publishers to invest in the few books that can reliably sell.

At the same time, the Internet and e-books are opening up new sales avenues for authors who either catch on through word of mouth or are able to build their own buzz. As a result, you’re seeing progressively more self-published and small-press books rise up through the cacophony of titles and find their readers.

In essence, it’s the best of times and the worst of times. If you’re an enterprising author there is a world of opportunity out there. Never before have we had a book publishing world where truly anyone could publish and potentially find their readers. Before there was a fundamental obstacle: distribution. That’s going away. Anyone can publish. It’s a massive, groundbreaking shift! I suspect soon there will be even more opportunities for collectives and online communities to boost sales, build brands, and become real players in publishing. Out of chaos comes order.

Read the full post here.