Tagged Articles for LEGAL

15 May 2010

Literary agent to stand trial for robbing authors

"A literary agent based in North Devon is due to stand trial next year, facing allegations that he stole more than £500,000 from budding authors. According to thisisnorthdevon.co.uk, Robin Price has pleaded not guilty to six counts of theft at an initial hearing at Exeter Crown Court, and was released on bail. The claims go back as far as 1999, and involve sums ranging from £646 to around £293,000 from six different people."

Bookseller.com

20 February 2010

Copyright staff get more than they give to authors and artists

"THE body established to pay authors for the use of their copyright last year spent more on its own staff -- including more than $350,000 for a chief executive -- than it paid authors and artists directly.

The Copyright Agency Limited was formed in 1989 to raise money from institutions using copyrighted works, such as newspaper articles, photographs and book excerpts, to reward the creators of these works.

But the collection agency last year paid $9.4 million in salaries, compared with a $9.1m direct allocation for authors and artists."

The Australian

18 June 2009

Temporary Restraining Order Issued in Salinger Case

It looks as if characters can be copyrighted. It makes sense, provided it's time-limited and restricted to publicly-recognised fictional characters.

Publishers Weekly

15 May 2009

Is It a Good Deal?

'For the first edition of my book How To Be Your Own Literary Agent I produced a down-and-dirty precis of book contract terms, "Is It a Good Deal?" This synopsis was intended for use as a handy reference when immediate action is called for, such as a surprise phone call with an offer from a publisher to whom you submitted your manuscript so long ago you'd forgotten about it. I urged authors to practice reading the guidelines with one hand cupped over the telephone receiver while their family jumps up and down shrieking, "They’re buying the book! They’re buying the book!"'

Publishing in the 21st Century

19 February 2009

Facebook Co-founder Backs Down

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that Facebook's Ts & Cs deprived writers and artists of their rights over their work once it was posted on the website. I'm pleased to see that Mark Zuckerberg has had second thoughts and for the time being at least has reinstated the previous terms. Apparently, a Facebook group, 85,000 strong, calling itself People Against the New Terms of Service has been instrumental in bringing this change about. I'm not a Facebook member and only heard about the problem in passing. Being sensitive to issues of writers and copyright, I decided to follow it up. I wonder how many other sites have terms that provide their owners with licences over members' work.

05 February 2009

Facebook

While Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, dreams of the riches he will make from mining the vast quantity of user data his site has amassed, I wonder how many people ever read Facebook's terms and conditions when they register. For example, would they be aware of the following clause:

By posting user content to any part of the site, you automatically grant to the company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such user content for any purpose on or in connection with the site or the promotion thereof.

That means Facebook can do whatever it feels like with any photograph, writing, music or artwork posted on its site. If I were a Facebook user, I'd have second thoughts about posting personal stuff. It could end up as a billboard ad or feature in a TV commercial.