Contract red flag alert: perpetual license for derivative rights – by Victoria Strauss…

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Sue Vincent

Originally posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware and reblogged via TRSA:

SFWA’s Contracts Committee has recently been seeing a proliferation of contracts from small magazines, and a very few established markets, that license all derivative rights in perpetuity.

This is a red flag for a number of reasons, even if these rights are licensed non-exclusively.

A derivative work is defined by copyright law as “a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted.”

This sort of rights grab is by no means normal; magazines generally only take very limited first publication and archival rights for a limited time.

Licensing the right to create derivative works can and mostly likely will interfere with the author’s right to exploit their right to create or license derivative works to others.

The risks of signing such contracts can be serious.

Continue reading at Writer Beware

Unknown's avatar

About Sue Vincent

Sue Vincent was a Yorkshire born writer, esoteric teacher and a Director of The Silent Eye. She was immersed in the Mysteries all her life. Sue maintained a popular blog and is co-author of The Mystical Hexagram with Dr G.M.Vasey. Sue lived in Buckinghamshire, having been stranded there due to an accident with a blindfold, a pin and a map. She had a lasting love-affair with the landscape of Albion, the hidden country of the heart. Sue  passed into spirit at the end of March 2021.
This entry was posted in Books, reblog, writing and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

13 Responses to Contract red flag alert: perpetual license for derivative rights – by Victoria Strauss…

  1. Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatar The Story Reading Ape says:
    May 11, 2018 at 17:13

    Thanks for helping spread the word, Sue ❤️

    Like

    Reply
  2. Mike's avatar Mike says:
    May 11, 2018 at 19:06

    Well, someone’s getting greedy!

    Like

    Reply
  3. Claire Bayley's avatar claire plaisted says:
    May 11, 2018 at 20:14

    Reblogged this on Claire Plaisted – Indie Author and commented:
    Must read…RED ALERT

    Like

    Reply
  4. Marilyn Armstrong's avatar Marilyn Armstrong says:
    May 12, 2018 at 00:20

    Life was hard enough for writers? We need more?

    Like

    Reply
  6. dgkaye's avatar dgkaye says:
    May 13, 2018 at 01:57

    Thanks for this great share Sue. I’ve bookmarked for future reference. ❤

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.