Legal Question on Contract |
Author: Don Beckett (---.phx-01.cvx.algx.net)
Date: 06-18-08 13:55
aloha ----
any lawyers reading this? i've signed a book contract with a publisher, and delivered the manuscript ... and now the publisher is claiming the contract says something i don't think it says!
here are the relevant sections:
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1. The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher the sole and exclusive right to print, publish and distribute the Work in book form in the English language throughout the world and the sole and exclusive right to print, publish and distribute the Work in book form in all languages in North America except Turkish and Russian (hereinafter referred to as "the Territory") during the whole term of copyright and any renewals and extensions thereof, and the sole and exclusive right for such term to exercise or authorize the exercise of the other rights to the Work set forth in Paragraph 5 hereof in the Territory.
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5. (d) The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher the right, solely and exclusively, to dispose of, or to license the disposition of, the subsidiary rights in and to the Work described below, and the proceeds received by the Publisher from any such disposition to a third party shall be divided between the Author and the Publisher as specified:
4. Foreign-language publication (including the right to sublicense the other rights granted herein to foreign language publishers) except Turkish.
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the exclusions for Turkish and Russian are because the book has already been published in those languages.
the question is: what are the new publishers rights regarding publication in languages other than English? to me, #1 (above) clearly defines the publisher's "Territory" as the world for publication in English, and as only North America for publication in other languages. And it also specifies that everything in #5 applies to this same "Territory". But the publisher is now claiming that its "Territory" is the entire world, for publications in any language -- and that all negotiations for publishing in foreign languages must go through this publisher, who will then receive 50% of the royalties involved....
if you're a lawyer -- or even a publisher -- please give me your reading on this!!
thanks very much -----
_||_
db
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Re: Legal Question on Contract |
Author: Joe Zeff (---.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net)
Date: 06-18-08 16:54
IANAL, but it looks to me as though you've given full control of all subsidiary rights except for Russian and Turkish editions to your publisher.
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Re: Legal Question on Contract |
Author: Cathy C (---.direcpc.com)
Date: 06-18-08 20:22
Yep, that's what it says all right. Here's the language that does it:
The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher the right, solely and exclusively, to dispose of, or to license the disposition of, the subsidiary...
At this point, you need to do a search for the word "license" in the contract in other paragraphs. See, a license is two different things depending on whether you're talking about copyright law or contract law.
In COPYRIGHT law, a copyright owner only has 5 rights to begin with:
the right to
1) distribute
2) modify
3) reproduce
4) perform; or
5) display the work
The copyright owner can grant PERMISSION to another person/company to exercise any of these rights on their behalf. This permission is called a license, and it means that the holder of the license takes the place of the copyright owner for a specified period of time. Now, during the term of a license, the license holder (acting as the copyright owner) may sign away all or part of the rights to the book to a THIRD party.
In CONTRACT law, you've basically made the publisher your attorney-in-fact to negotiate on your behalf. That may or may not mean copyright ownership though.
My best advice is to get thee to a publishing attorney to review the document as a WHOLE. Individual paragraphs can be read one way, while additional paragraphs can steer the whole meaning in another way. In either case, you've signed a document you might regret without some tweaking or clarification.
If you can afford an attorney, I'd recommend you visit http://www.martindale.com Martindale-Hubbell is the largest directory of attorneys in the world and you can search by area of practice (Entertainment Law or Intellectual Property Law are what you're looking for)
If you CAN'T afford an attorney check out the Starving Artists website to see if there are any volunteer organizations in your area. A lot of attorneys offer their services for no or low-cost to authors and artists for just this sort of situation. http://www.starvingartistslaw.com/help/volunteer%20lawyers.htm
Not speaking as an attorney here, but as a concerned 20+ year intellectual property paralegal and author. I wish you the best of luck. :)
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Re: Legal Question on Contract |
Author: Debra Storky (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 06-19-08 18:09
It's not unusual for a publisher to own world rights and give the author a percent of the money they make on selling those rights. This seems to be what's going on in your case (except for the two countries excepted). My publisher owns world rights to my first book. It sold rights to German, Italian, and Serbian publishers, and I got a percentage of the money. It's not a terrible thing.
If you have an agent, you should be asking her about this rather than asking strangers a listserv. If you don't have an agent, you're better off having the publisher control the foreign rights anyway, because it's very difficult for an author to sell foreign rights without an agent.
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Re: Legal Question on Contract |
Author: Ann Crispin (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 07-02-08 09:05
I agree with Debra.
-Ann C. Crispin
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