Gerald M. Levine, co-author In May 2015, the Authors Guild announced its Fair Contract Initiative, and more recently the Internatioanl Authors Forum presented “Ten Principles for Fair Contracts.” Both highlight the same ” standard” contract terms. These include length of license, fair royalties on e-books . . . . Continue reading Column from Publishers Weekly […]
Archive | Authors
Derivative Works: Who Owns What?
By Sheila J. Levine on January 11, 2016 in Authors, Contracts/Copyright, Copyright Act, Copyright Infringement, Fair use, Public domain
Co-Author Gerald M. Levine Courts have recently been busy dealing with the puzzling concepts of derivative works, fair use, and transformation. “Transformation” is the underlying principle of derivative works created either by the author or licensees with the author’s permission; or created without the author’s permission legally under the fair use doctrine. There are two […]
Next Book Option In Publishing Contracts: Benign to Toxic
By Sheila J. Levine on October 20, 2015 in Authors, Contracts/Copyright, Publishing, Publishing contract
Co-author Gerald M. Levine In May 2015 the Authors Guild announced its “Fair Contract Initiative.” So far it has addressed royalty rates on e-books (should be 50% of net receipts not 25% as it presently is), term of license (should be less than term of copyright which is the default term for print books), name […]
Celebrating 305 Years of Statutory Copyright Law
By Sheila J. Levine on July 6, 2015 in Authors, Characters, Contracts/Copyright, Copyright Act, Copyright Infringement, Fair use
Gerald M. Levine, Co-author Rights in Literary Property The United States Copyright Office and many people on social media, particularly on Twitter, have been celebrating the enactment of the first national copyright act in this country that President Washington signed into law on May 31, 1790. The 1790 Act was largely adopted from an earlier […]
Authors and Domain Names
By Gerald M. Levine on June 3, 2015 in Authors, Contracts/Copyright, Copyright Act, Typosquatting, udrp law, udrp proceedings
Copyright law is the principal system for protecting authors’ creations. It confers rights without requiring any other action, but in order to fully benefit from the law authors and parties to whom copyrights have been assigned or sold have to record their copyrights with the Copyright Office. Recordation is the key to protection. Once that […]
Authors and Domain Names: Claiming Rights to Personal Names, Characters and Titles
By Gerald M. Levine on March 7, 2015 in Abusive registration, Authors, Characters, Domain name law, Trademarks, UDRP Commentaries
This article first appeared in Independent Publisher. Copyright law is the principal system for protecting authors’ creations. It confers rights without requiring any other action, but in order to fully benefit from the law authors and parties to whom copyrights have been assigned or sold have to record their copyrights with the Copyright Office. Recordation […]
The Role of Investors in Marketing Literary Works
By Sheila J. Levine on February 5, 2015 in Authors, Contracts, Contracts/Copyright, Copyright Act, Publishing, Publishing contract
The following article first appeared in Independent Publisher. The full text can also be read in full below. Co-Author Gerald M. Levine Copyright adheres to creative works when they are fixed in tangible mediums of expression for the first time. At the moment of fixation authors own and control their works in every respect, but […]
Characters As Protectable Assets Do Not Survive Copyright Termination
By Sheila J. Levine on October 26, 2014 in Authors, Characters, Contracts/Copyright, Copyrightability, Publishing
Co-author Gerald M. Levine Characters as protectable assets do not survive copyright termination of the works in which they appear even though they may continue to live on in works that continue in copyright. All works published prior to January 1, 1923 are in the public domain, a vast repository of cultural wealth available for […]
Delay in Suing for Copyright Infringement
Co-author, Gerald M. Levine Delay in suing for copyright infringement is not fatal to a claim for damages. Plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., decided on May 19, 2014, waited 18 years to bring suit. The majority held that laches cannot be invoked as a bar to […]
Internet Subscription Libraries
By Sheila J. Levine on November 4, 2013 in Authors, Contracts, Contracts/Copyright, Copyright Act, Publishing
Co-author, Gerald M. Levine New Internet subscription libraries are offering to “lend” digital books based on subscription models that brick and mortar lending libraries in England invented in the 19th Century. For $X dollars per time period subscribers gain access to vast collections of backlist and self-published books at less cost and with none of […]
Terminating Exclusive Licenses
Co-author, Gerald M. Levine Terminating exclusive licenses after the passage of time is a statutory right. The Copyright Act of 1976 decrees that the author shall have a right exercisable only once for each separate literary work under exclusive license and for a brief window of time after 35 years from the date of a […]
Is Publishing Under Threat of Extinction?
C0-author Gerald M. Levine, Esq. The traditional world of publishing is under threat of extinction; at least, that is the chatter on the Internet and news stories . The current message forecasts a grim future. The evidence is all around us. There is a steady diet of gloom from news reports, court filings by the […]
Authors and Domain Names
Withdrawn. Expanded and revised in 2015 article AUTHORS AND DOMAIN NAMES: CLAIMING RIGHTS TO PERSONAL NAMES, CHARACTERS AND TITLES.
Wariness in Granting Rights to Aggregators
By Sheila J. Levine on September 14, 2012 in Authors, Copyright Act, Copyright Infringement, Derivative works, Publishing
Originally published as a Guest Blog on Writer Beware® September 7, 2012 Co-author, Gerald M. Levine There is a reason for authors to be wary in granting permission for their blogs to be published by aggregaters. Authors create the content blog aggregators need for their web collections. Each gains in different ways. For the aggregator, […]
Consequences of an Unsatisfactory Manuscript
Co-author, Gerald M. Levine The traditional publishing process begins with an editor’s enthusiastic response to an author’s outline, proposal, and sample chapter, followed by an offer and contract from the publisher. Once the contract is signed the focus shifts to the quality of the final manuscript. The publishing contract includes a “d & a” (abbreviation […]
Exclusive Rights for Exploiting Literary Works
Co-author, Gerald M. Levine Publishers expect and demand exclusive rights for exploiting literary works. When lawyers talk about “standard” clauses and courts refer to publishing contracts as “standard agreements” it is not to suggest that there is a standard form such as we expect for certain real estate transactions. What we mean by “standard” is […]
Paying Authors for Their Work
Co-author Gerad M. Levine Whether money is the motive for writing – “[n]o man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money” (Samuel Johnson) – or only one of the rewards for those lonely hours of composition, how does the author get paid? Before she reaches the “royalties” clause in her publishing contract she has […]
Licensing Work for a Collection
By Sheila J. Levine on March 29, 2012 in Authors, Contracts, Contracts/Copyright, Copyright Act, Copyright Infringement, Publishing
Co-author Gerald M. Levine Including a work in a collection or compilation depends on who owns the copyright and the licensing terms if the work is owned by the author. Compilations of like works or genres may be a goal eagerly sought by authors. Collections may be under a publisher’s control. Internet compilations may be […]
Literary Agent’s Entitlement to Commission
Co-author, Gerald M. Levine Literary agents stand in relation to authors as adventurers to booty: payday depends on placing literary works and licensing rights. Their entitlement to commission is contingent. They earn their commissions by placing authors’ works with publishers and promoters capable of exploiting their economic value. Commission is spread over the economic life […]
Preparing for Reversion at Contract Inception
Co-author Gerald M. Levine Publishers typically offer an unsatisfactory reversion of rights clause so it is prudent to negotiate for an even playing field on this issue. Assuring author has a genuine right of reversion in the event her work goes out of print must be a high priority, particularly in an electronic environment where […]