Archive for the ‘Contracts and Copyrights’ Category

Sample DMCA notice for reading-kicks-ass.net

The website http://reading.kicks-ass.net/ contains a significant amount of material that is recognizably copyrighted by our members.    Often sites which post material without permission are outside the United States and governed by different copyright rules.  In this instance the hosting company’s policy explicitly prohibits distribution of copyrighted materials. Legally, DMCA notices must come from the […]

Rights and Copyright

Copyright, literally, is “the right to copy.” It guarantees the authors of creative works–including books, artworks, films, recordings, photographs–the exclusive right for a set period of time to allow other people to copy and distribute the work, by whatever means and in whatever media currently exist. It also prohibits copying and distributing without the author’s permission. You own copyright by law, automatically, as soon your work is fixed in tangible form–i.e., the minute you write down the words.

Book Authors’ Bill of Rights

This document has been endorsed by the Romance Writers of America (RWA), Novelists, Inc., Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), and Western Writers of America, Inc. (WWA), representing a total of nearly 11,000 writers. Ratified version (2002) While affirming the freedom of every writer to negotiate in his or her own best […]