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  Knowledge of copyright law anyone? (7 posts)

• Renee Pinzon said 1 month, 1 week ago:

  Does anyone have any experience with a reverted copyright to their book? My publisher went out of business in 1998 and my book has been out of print ever since. Now I'd like to self-publish it in digital format but I don't know if I own the copyright, or if the copyright is owned by the college that owned the now-defunct publishing house.

• Nathan Lowell said 1 month, 1 week ago:

  Academic publishing is such a scam.

  IANAL but It should be in your original contract. I'm assuming you signed over copyright to the university press as a condition of publication, but the contract should have a boilerplate in there that says something like "if we go belly up, you get it back."

  If you can't find the contract, and the defunct house is really defunct — there's not anybody to really enforce the copyright claim on their behalf is there?

  Check your contract, and then pay a lawyer.

  Or write a new book that's not the old book and publish that one instead

• Renee Pinzon said 1 month, 1 week ago:

  I've been trying to locate that contract for a few days. I'm starting to think it got lost in our last move.

  And yes, a new book is being hatched!

  But the reason this came up was that I recently discovered that there has been a growing (if small) demand for the old book and old copies are going for silly amounts of money on used book sites.

  I guess in the end I'll have to get a lawyer to look into it. But it may not make any financial sense to get a lawyer. I don't know if there would enough sales to make the money back and have much profit to speak of. Most book collectors would rather have an old original edition than a new one. Especially a digital one. But… well, I'll keep looking into it and see if it's worth pursuing.

  BTW, thanks for the friend request. You are officially my first friend on this site!

• Nathan Lowell said 1 month, 1 week ago:

  you're welcome.

  I *think* that if the organization is defunct, then enforcing an infringement claim would be a bit difficult. You can always put it the ebook up and be ready to pull it down if they issue a Cease and Desist

  You've got a good defense with "Oh?! I thought you were out of business so how can I be cutting into your market for this work?"

• Eric Hammel said 1 month ago:

  Renee, your question is not a copyright question, it's a contract question.

  Here's what every author needs to know as rock-bottom basic.

  Publishing is a fully mature business undergirded by a body of law that is clearly understood within clear industry standards thoroughly tested under established law. There are challenges from time to time, almost invariably the result of new technology, such as electronic book distribution.

  Unless you enter into an explicit work-made-for-hire agreement, your copyright privelege is universal under the Berne world copyright convention and the Sonny Bono U.S. copyright act. It begins as your fingers meet the keyboard to tap out immortal words. You can give that right away, or sell it, but it can only be done under terms of an explicit contract using language recognized under the international and national copyright laws. It is highly unusual for an author to "sell" a copyright.

  What an author typically "signs over" to a third-party publisher is a subright emanating from the automatic life-plus-70-year (U.S.) copyright that begins with fingers on a keyboard. An acceptable, industry-standard publishing contract usually has a fixed term and, more to the point, a reversion clause that includes a schedule of triggering events.

  A book contract sets forth a series of rights "rentals" (not permanent) rather than rights transfers (permanent). Some of these are usually the right to publish various hardcopy editions of the book and "subrights" such as ebooks, film rights, audio rights, and so forth. Each right you rent out is referred to in the contract and involves a royalty rate, and so forth. All of these are negotiable: you want to sell rights, various entities want to purchase rights. The main question is do you have the guts to deal? All rights not enumerated in a contract are reserved by the author, so if you can retain ebook rights, you can still negotiate and sell ebook rights, or publish your own ebook.

  I am the publisher's worst nightmare when it comes to reversions. I know my law, and I use it at the earliest opportunity, as set out in a publishing contract. I get the ball rolling by starting the clock ticking. Of forty books written, the only ones not in my hands directly–around ten–are still under contract because they are in print and active in the hands of one outside publisher. All the others that can still earn me a dime are maintained in print and/or ebook editions by me, under one or the other of two imprints owned by my corporate shell.

  If someone–Renee?–will take the time to copy a reversion clause to this topic area, I'll tell you what you need to do. I've even been through three publisher bankruptcies, which are hell, but I have gotten all rights back into my own hands nonetheless.

  I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot give legal advice. I can, however, share my experiences, and I'll be glad to do so.

• Renee Pinzon said 1 month ago:

  Wow. Three publisher bankruptcies? My condolences. But I'll bet that toughened your skin. At this point I'd like to contact you directly. I'll send along a message to you. Glad you have so much experience to share in this area. It's very encouraging.

• Eric Hammel said 1 month ago:

  Here is a standard reversion request I worked up long ago. It has never failed:

  I am informed that [BOOK] by [AUTHOR] is no longer available and is thus “out of print.”

  Under terms of our [CONTRACT DATE] publishing contract, and in behalf of myself and my coauthor, I hereby request that rights be fully reverted on or by [DATE EXACTLY SIX MONTHS HENCE]. If you have already determined, or determine in the interim, that you have no desire to reprint the title, I ask that you extend the courtesy of an early rights reversion. If I do not hear back from you on this matter, either in the form of a reversion or notice of a plan to reprint within the timeframe established in the contract, I will assume that the rights have reverted as of [DATE EXACTLY SIX MONTHS HENCE], and will proceed accordingly.

  Many thanks for your kind attention.

  ====

  I want to stress that, under terms of an industry-standard contract, you are =not= obligated to await a response longer than the term set forth in the reversion clause, which is almost always six months from the date of your notice letter. That's because the maker of the contract, the publisher, is absolutely required to live up to the exact terms set forth in the contract. A non-response =is= thus a response.