Category: Rights and permissions

Full Disclosure: Our rights manager pointed out to me this article by Tom Chalmers in Digital Book World on the value of a publisher’s rights department. But that doesn’t make the point any less valid.

Authors,

publishers and the general public all benefit from making sure a book gets the widest use in other languages, in various digital formats, in periodicals (yes, they still exist), permissions of various kinds, and so forth. Even if your books don’t lend themselves to movie adaptations, there is plenty of exposure to be had and revenue to be generated.
Continue reading “Defending Your Rights (Department)”

Recently my wife and I were revising our wills. (Don’t worry, kids. You’re still in.) You see, we figure every twenty years or so we ought to take a look, you know, whether things have changed or not. And, of course, we got all the standard boilerplate stuff from our lawyer. And that was good.
Continue reading “A Visit to Our Lawyer”

Intelligent, informed, morally upright people have told me that anything on the web is public domain. They feel free to repost it, reprint it, resell it or re-use it in any way they wish without permission. Music, images, text–it’s all fair game.

Not so. The copyright laws apply to whatever is on the web in the same way they apply to whatever is in a newspaper, magazine, book, TV broadcast, radio or any other media. If it’s not fair use or if free use is not explicitly stated (as with something like wikicommons and wikimedia) then permission is required from the copyright owner. Here’s a couple more myths.
Continue reading “If It’s on the Web, It’s Free–FALSE”

With all the options and advantages for self-publishing print and ebooks, authors are weighing their options these days, wondering what traditional publishers really have to offer. One consideration is selling rights.

Continue reading “Reaching the World (or Not)”

I am neither a lawyer nor the son of a lawyer (though I am the father of a lawyer). So I am legally unqualified to give you any advice about anything (enough for the disclaimer). But I get asked questions.
Continue reading “Who Will Own the Copyright?”

A teacher once told me, “Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean it’s not true.” I’ve quoted that here before, but it’s still true.
Continue reading “Rights and Wrongs”

When it comes to the digital future of publishing, we as publishers can be our own worst enemies.

Everyone seems to agree that electronic books will be a significant part of the world ahead. The only disagreement is how fast this new publishing environment will emerge and in what form. One of the major barriers to any form of digital publishing, however, are the permissions policies of publishers themselves.
Continue reading “Our Own Worst Electronic Enemies”