IVP - Andy Unedited - Rights and Permissions Archives

A Visit to Our Lawyer

Recently my wife and I were revising our wills. (Don't worry, kids. You're still in.) You see, we figure every twenty years or so we ought to take a look, you know, whether things have changed or not. And, of course, we got all the standard boilerplate stuff from our lawyer. And that was good.

If It's on the Web, It's Free--FALSE

Intelligent, informed, morally upright people have told me that anything on the web is public domain. They feel free to repost it, reprint it, resell it or re-use it in any way they wish without permission. Music, images, text--it's all fair game.

Not so. The copyright laws apply to whatever is on the web in the same way they apply to whatever is in a newspaper, magazine, book, TV broadcast, radio or any other media. If it's not fair use or if free use is not explicitly stated (as with something like wikicommons and wikimedia) then permission is required from the copyright owner. Here's a couple more myths.

Reaching the World (or Not)

With all the options and advantages for self-publishing print and ebooks, authors are weighing their options these days, wondering what traditional publishers really have to offer. One consideration is selling rights.

Proving a Publisher's Worth

In a comment on my recent post, Mark Denning asked what I thought about Stephen "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" Covey moving electronic rights to some of his books exclusively to Amazon, as reported in this morning's New York Times. So here are some first thoughts, Mark.

Who Will Own the Copyright?

I am neither a lawyer nor the son of a lawyer (though I am the father of a lawyer). So I am legally unqualified to give you any advice about anything (enough for the disclaimer). But I get asked questions.

Rights and Wrongs

A teacher once told me, "Just because it's a cliché doesn't mean it's not true." I've quoted that here before, but it's still true.

Our Own Worst Electronic Enemies

When it comes to the digital future of publishing, we as publishers can be our own worst enemies.

Everyone seems to agree that electronic books will be a significant part of the world ahead. The only disagreement is how fast this new publishing environment will emerge and in what form. One of the major barriers to any form of digital publishing, however, are the permissions policies of publishers themselves.