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My Attitude Toward Helping With Copyright…
I Am Not a Lawyer… And would never give legal advice. But I am a long-term professional fiction writer of over 50 years and I know copyright because (duh) that is how I make all my money. So when I say something to inform about copyright, I say what I say not as a lawyer, but in the interest of helping writers learn and avoid issues. A super nice person who has forgotten more of the legal fine details of copyrght that I know often responds to my posts. I need to be clear here. Court cases and attorneys are cheap when you need their help to consult or look…
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More Copyright…
Not Really for Fun… Writers who don’t have the time to learn copyright seem to not like to have it thrust upon them. So most will just skip this and last night’s post. Just nature of the desire of the uninformed to remain uninformed. I think it is a rule of nature. I answered a comment I wanted to bring up here because I got similar in emails. Since 1987 or so (Actually March 1st 1989) in the US, copyright notice on a work is not needed or required. Reasons to put a copyright date on a work… — It can be a “notice” to the uninformed that someone owns…
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Interesting Copyright and Workshop Fun!
Copyright Notice… Kris and I went to see Wicked (part one) tonight. Great movie and I am a fan of L. Frank Baum’s work in all manner. I have read all 14 of the original OZ books, some numbers of time, and most of his short stories. At one point before my house fire, I even had 12 of the original hardback with dust editions with the fantastic (Denslow and Neill) art. So I am sitting watching the credits tonight and made note of the credit given to the author of the derivative novel, Gregory Maguire. But unless I missed it, not one credit to the original Baum source material…
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Reminded of Something…
Backlist Memories… Not a part of my branding series, just me reminding myself of something… Here is the story. Fact, at the moment Kris and I have about 1,400 titles of one sort or another. We have spent over 12 years of hard work and time and a ton of money to get those all into one form of print or another. Some make decent money, some make a little money, some don’t sell at all. Normal and expected. I have to be honest, I can’t remember a bunch of the novels I have written and published. Very few of the 106 published novels in traditional publishing, more of the…
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Collaboration…
Hall and Oates Fight… This came through Variety Magazine. An article on a restraining order Hall filed against Oates and why. All copyright and collaboration related. One quote from the article… “According to the AP report, what it is that Hall can’t go for is Oates’ desire to sell his share of the duo’s Whole Oats Enterprises to the investment firm, which already purchased a “significant” stake in their catalog rights 16 years ago. Hall has indicated that he regrets not owning all his publishing.” Now back as the pandemic started, we started and then stopped a collaboration class. Ended up we could not do it as intended for a…
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Learning Copyright…
What Does “Learn Copyright” Mean? I’m talking about one tiny area of this on the Bite-Sized Copyright class this week. But much deeper than I will do here. When I tell a writer to learn copyright, I not only mean the Copyright Handbook, which is a great place to start, but I also mean following and understanding what is happening now in the culture when it comes to copyright. Everything from reading the recent copyright suits to reading the WGA settlement agreement. All kinds of copyright stuff. But I also mean learn the history of copyright because most writers have gotten stuck in time at one point or another with…
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The Life and Times of a Copyright…
How One Short Story Made A Lot of Money… So many writers do not understand the value of a single piece of copyright. In this case, let me tell you the story of the life (so far) of a short story titled, “In the Shade of the Slowboat Man.” Back in the early 1990s, about thirty years ago, I was invited to write a story for a vampire anthology and like a fool I said yes. I hate vampires. So I put it off until a writing retreat on the Oregon Coast with eight other writers in one house for the weekend. I sat down at my then-massive computer sitting…
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Indie Publishers and Copyright
A Court Case… More than likely, this is something almost no indie writers and publishers even know about. Seven years ago, WMG Publishing got a demand letter from the copyright office that we needed to submit two of our best copies of every title we had published. Or pay a $250 fine per title. Yikes… Yeah, I know you didn’t know about this… Not something talked about in indie publishing circles and because most writers refuse to learn copyright, not something that would ever come up. Until you get the demand letter from the Copyright office like we did. Kris and I knew about it from our days at Pulphouse…
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Derivative Rights in Bite-Sized Copyright
Talking Derivative Rights for Next Three Weeks… That’s right, for those of you who think you know copyright, or are planning to learn it any day now, it is going to take me three full weeks of Bite-Sized Copyright class to just do the basics on derivative rights. And you can’t understand licensing anything unless you understand how derivative rights work first. Bite-Sized Copyright class has no assignments, so it fits with just about anything. You just get the videos every Monday morning every week for the full year. Yes, you can take it quarter by quarter and all the first weeks remain, so you can catch up on your…
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Only Talking Valuation…
Not What You Do With It… I was not talking estates, or taxes, or Thor Power Tools… (Don’t ask.) You need to at least begin to understand valuation before you get to estates, taxes, or selling your catalog of copyright. So I was only talking about some basics of valuation. What you do with the valuation is up to you. SOME POINTS… All catalogs, no matter the size, will have a valuation. I know early stage writers and publishers think none of this is important, just as they believe copyright is something to learn down the road. And even more scary, even some long-term professional writers don’t understand the value…