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Ask Author Law

Lucky author can publish a new edition of an old book.

Q: I am the author of a children’s biography that was published in 1965 by a publisher that has long since gone out of business. I didn’t know any better at the time, so I signed the copyright over to the publisher. The book has been out of print for years, but there was no reversion of rights or out of print clause in the original publishing contract, as nearly as I can recall (although I can’t find the original contract). There is now a lot of interest in the subject of that book because of a recent hit movie and the upcoming hundredth anniversary of one of the events in the subject’s life. I’d like to approach other publishers about a new edition of this book, but I assume I can’t because I signed away the copyright. What, if anything, can I do? Can I write a totally new biography? If so, what will it take to make it a new book that I can copyright in my own name?

A: You’re in luck. Your book was written and published under the old copyright law, which was changed in 1976, with the changes going into effect on January 1, 1978. Under the old law, a copyright had a term of 28 years and could be renewed for another 28. The new law eliminated copyright renewal and created a single term of the author’s life plus 70 years.

If your book had been published just a couple of years earlier, and the first term of the copyright had not been renewed by either you or the publisher, your book would have entered the public domain at the end of the 28th year and neither you nor the publisher would own the copyright. However, for works copyrighted between January 1, 1964 and December 31, 1977, the new and amended copyright law provides for an automatic 47 year renewal without any requirement that the renewal be registered with the copyright office. Your book, therefore, is still protected by copyright. Now the question is, who owns the copyright during the term of renewal. The law says that ONLY the author may claim renewal, and that’s you. The publisher, even if still in business, has lost all rights in the work.

You should definitely claim your renewal by registering it with the copyright office. To do that, obtain Form RE from the Copyright Office and follow the instructions. In order to properly fill out the form, you will need a copy of the original registration or the original registration number. To find that, you’ll probably have to search the Copyright Office records or hire someone to do it for you. There are copyright search firms that can do this quickly or you can pay the copyright office to do it for you, although this can take some time. The Copyright Office charges a reasonable hourly fee to search and most searches take less than an hour, but there can be a time lag before you get the search results. The private search firms charge more, but you can get results within a day or two. You can get more information about renewal of copyrights by calling the Renewals Section of the Copyright Office at (202) 707-8180.

Any author of a work copyrighted between January 1, 1964 and December 31, 1977 should protect the work by renewing the copyright registration. This is particularly important if the original copyright was assigned to the publisher or someone else, because only the author is entitled to renew and you can get those lost rights back by completing the renewal process.

Disclaimer: Ask Author Law is a Q&A blog about legal issues for authors. I am a practicing attorney, freelance writer, and publishing consultant. I focus my law practice on the representation of authors, often consulting with or serving as co-counsel to other attorneys on publishing cases. Readers are reminded that this information is for general information only and that any specific legal problems should be discussed with an attorney. Questions are presented anonymously, with the asker’s privacy protected. Some are composites based on issues I have been asked about in the past. Some were asked at workshops and conferences where I have presented.  Read More 
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Is it legal to post a newspaper or magazine article of interest to membes of an online forum, listserv or other cyber discussion group?

Q: Is it OK to post a newspaper or magazine article of interest to writers on a listserv? This happened recently on a writers list I subscribe to. Some people said that it was all right to do so because, even though the article was protected by copyright, is permitted under the law as "fair use." Others said that writers should be especially respectful of copyrights. Someone posted the exact text of the fair use section of copyright law itself. Then there were arguments about the interpretation of the law. The debate got quite nasty as people called each other "pirates" and "copyright police." What's the correct interpretation of the fair use law on our listserv?

A: The short answer, in my opinion, is no, it's emphatically not fair use to post an entire article on line. Fair use is a widely misunderstood concept. Like the Bible, the text of a statute seems to allow people to read into it whatever supports their point of view. In our common law tradition, however, the statute is just a starting point. The law is also found in the court decisions interpreting the statute.

The case law about fair use clearly supports, in my opinion, the position that posting of full text material on the internet is almost never fair use. One of the cases where the photocopying of copyrighted material for educational purposes was held not to be fair was a case involving Kinkos, later upheld in the Michigan Documents case. In the listserv discussion, several members criticized the "copyright police" at their local FedEx/Kinkos copy shop. The reason Kinkos became such a vigilant enforcer of copyright law is because the company was a big loser in the case bearing its name -- the case that held academic coursepacks to be infringing. If the photocopying of limited numbers of articles and book chapters, even though for educational purposes, has been held to be infringement, I can't imagine that any distribution via the internet would be found fair, considering the sheer number of copies internet distribution makes possible.

The Kinkos and Michigan Documents cases are distinguished from the 2nd Circuit ruling in the Authors Guild v. Google case because, even though Google has scanned complete books, it only posts "snippets." While the posting of snippets was held to be fair use, the Authors Guild has announced that it intends a further appeal.

The thing that I found especially distressing about the listserv discussion of this issue was the numerous and vociferous complaints about the "copyright police" among a group of professional writers, writers on whose behalf author organizations devote a great deal of effort in promoting understanding and enforcement of copyright laws. If you want to share an article with members of your group, you can always post a link, but please respect the copyrights of fellow writers.

Ask Author Law is a Q&A blog about legal issues for writers. I am a practicing attorney, freelance writer, and publishing consultant. I focus my law practice on the representation of authors, often consulting with or serving as co-counsel to other attorneys on publishing cases. Readers are reminded that this information is for general information only and that any specific legal problems should be discussed with an attorney. Questions are presented anonymously, with the asker’s privacy protected. Some are composites based on issues I have been asked about in the past. Some were asked at workshops and conferences where I have presented. If you have a question for this blog, send it to authorlaw@yahoo.com. Your question may be edited or combined with others. I cannot answer questions privately and not all questions can be used, but I’ll try to give full coverage to the matters that writers care about most.  Read More 

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