[WEB4LIB] Copyrights and Ebooks

[Dan Lester]

Wednesday, August 16, 2000, 7:22:16 AM, you wrote:

PL> I have a friend who wrote a series of articles for a magazine that was later
PL> turned into a book.  The book has been out of print for some years now.
PL> However, she continues to get requests for copies of the book.  She would
PL> like to offer the book as an ebook on the internet, but doesn't know what
PL> her rights are to the book she wrote.

PL> How would she find this out?

First, I am not a lawyer.  Second, I dealt with a very similar problem
succsessfully about eight years ago.

The book itself should indicate who owns the copyright.  Typically, it
would be the publisher, but you never know.  If the publisher is still
in business, they will have a permissions or other person she can talk
to.  The publisher will also have a copy of the contract, you can be
sure.

If the publisher is out of business (which was my case) it gets
trickier.  In my situation, I was doing hard copy reprints, with the
copying done by Kinkos.  Since the book said the copyright was held by
the publisher, they weren't willing to make the copies.  I provided
them proof the publisher had gone bankrupt, that I was the senior
offer, that the second author was deceased, and that the third author
relinquished all rights.  They then printed the copies.

Had it been a small number of copies, I would have just done it
myself, but it was several hundred copies of a thousand page book,
back to back.

The issue could be further complicated by what rights are specified in the
contract. It probably covers ALL rights including "all future
technologies" and so forth.  But if it ignores electronic rights, she
may be home free, regardless.

Good luck

dan


-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com