Tag: copyright

Pen to Paper: Literary Estate

Posted on by bryon

Let’s start the new year by talking about our wills.

Now, now. Don’t give me that look. I am reliably informed that we’ve all got to go sometime. And we’re all leaving a lot of detritus behind us that we owe the courtesy of helping to clean up. In the last few years, I’ve seen firsthand what happens when one does and when one doesn’t leave a will. You’re being unkind to your next of kin if you don’t.

But whatever you decide to do about Great Aunt Nellie’s smoked-glass candy dish, let’s focus on what we creative types might do with our intellectual property rights. It is my understanding (lawyers, jump in and correct me if necessary) that IP rights don’t automatically accompany an estate. So all those poems and songs you wrote? The novel you self-published? The twenty years worth of plays you wrote for the local theater? If you don’t specify in your will who gets the rights to those, no one gets them.

Copyright law, at present (until The Mouse gets it extended yet again), says a creative work is copyrighted at the moment of creation and for seventy years after the creator’s death (longer in some cases). For seventy years, no one has the right to use or republish your work. How well-remembered do you expect to be after seven decades?

People who earned their daily bread and fed their families with their creative works have not given thought to this dilemma. Back in October 2006, Neil Gaiman wrote with a heavy heart about his friend John M. Ford, an author of no small note, who had died without making final arrangements for his literary estate. And another writer whose not-quite-ex-wife ended up with his copyrights, to everyone’s detriment. Gaiman and a lawyer friend offer a short and sweet solution in that post, so go check it out.

I’m a little past a half century. I’m hoping for another thirty years or so, but I’m working on documenting things like I’ve got until late next week. Just to be polite. It’s pretty easy, really, except for what to do with my little literary estate, most of which can be found on this site. It isn’t much, but I’m fairly proud of what I have done. I had once thought of just releasing the copyrights upon my death, but I’m not so sure about that now. On the off chance that something I’ve done could, in fact, become popular, why should some schmuck I never knew get comfortably well off from it? But I doubt that any of my relatives would want to fuss with my writing. So I’m a bit stuck at the moment.

So, to the comments! What provisions have you made for your literary estate?

Pen to Paper: Copyright and the Public Domain

Posted on by bryon

Copyright is pretty important to writers. Like most aspects of the law, there are ins and outs that it doesn’t hurt to have a law degree to understand. But Brian Klems over at Writers Digest has collected some of the popular copyright Q&As for easy access and comprehension. You can read the official word on copyright matters at the U.S. Copyright Office’s FAQs.

How long copyright lasts depends on when something was published and how it was published. The length of copyright now far outlasts the creator’s lifetime thanks to Mickey Mouse and Sonny Bono. (Come to think of it … did we ever see them together?) Increasingly, some corporations are using the copyright laws to enrich themselves at the expense of the public good (like they use or break or bribe their way around all the other laws). This is turning copyright law into a minefield for creators and is shrinking the public domain. For a guided tour of what’s good and what’s bad about the present state of copyright law, read this excellent graphic presentation (okay, it’s a comic book) written by three lawyers; the PDF is freely available at the Public Domain website. It focuses on documentary filmmaking, but don’t let that deter you from reading it.

I’m a great believer in copyright while I’m living and could (theoretically) earn some part of my living from what I write. And this is a good time to remind everyone that my stories and haiku (indeed, all my words here at Catsignal) are copyrighted and made available through a Creative Commons license. Scroll down the About page to see both.

But there will come a time after my inevitable death when there will be absolutely no good reason why my work shouldn’t be freely available to all. Why wouldn’t a creator want his stories to join those of Aesop and Shakespeare and Dickens in the public domain? Without that escape hatch, a creative work faces the possibility of being orphaned and lost forever.

Pen to Paper: Fan Fiction

Posted on by bryon

The first story I wrote was Star Trek fan fiction. It ran about two-thirds of a page long and was about the Enterprise blasting the heck out of a Klingon ship. I proudly handed it to my third-grade teacher for review. She neither mentioned it nor returned it. I apologize to my biographers for not being more diligent on their behalf when I was 8 years old.

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Pen to Paper: Using Song Lyrics in Fiction

Posted on by bryon

Author and poet Blake Morrison has an article at the Guardian’s website about using song lyrics in your fiction. It’s an excellent cautionary tale, and the moral of the story is given in the lead. Read it here.

In the non-fiction editing I do, I have to let the publisher know if I come across three words or more of lyrics that aren’t in the public domain (generally regarded as anything written before 1923). So what Morrison has written isn’t surprising to me, but I’m glad he’s given us the benefit of his learning curve. (The sums of money are given in British pounds. As of even date, the exchange rate is £1.5 equals $1.)

Morrison’s article refers to the laws in Great Britain, but there’s no substantial difference (so far as I can tell) here in the United States in copyright protections and remedies for violations. All these years, whenever someone has sung The Birthday Song in a TV show or movie or play, or written the words in a work of fiction, they’ve had to pay for the privilege. It’s not in the public domain; the authors have passed on, but Warner Music Group still owns the rights. As a refresher, see the U.S. Copyright Office’s page concerning Fair Use.

There are two simple ways to get around this: use the song’s title to refer to it, or paraphrase the lyrics. Here’s a combined example: “That was Jerry Lee Lewis with his Great Balls of Fire,” the announcer said. Jeff turned the radio off. “The only nerve-shaking and brain-rattling I’m interested in will be when that rocket lifts off tomorrow. That’s the only ball of fire I care about, too.” Do it without the announcer and readers still can figure out what song you’re referring to and it’s safe.

If you’re serious about using some lyrics, you have to contact the person who holds those rights. That can get terribly tricky because ownership of lyrics bounces around like paperbacks at a yard sale. It may well be that neither the lyricist nor the publisher own the rights. If it’s an older song still covered by copyright, you may find the publisher has gone out of business. Then you’re into some detective work on top of whatever the rights owner will charge you.

The laws don’t change just because you’re writing for fun or are selling your work on a limited scale. Here’s an instructive anecdote: Broadway playwright George S. Kaufman discovered that one of his plays was being staged by a summer-stock producer who hadn’t paid for the privilege. The fellow told Kaufman, “It’s only a small, insignificant theater.” Kaufman responded, “Then you’ll go to a small, insignificant jail.”

Re-read Morrison’s lead. That’s the bottom line.

Creative Commons: License to Thrill

Posted on by bryon

One day, perhaps soon, this post will be considered quaint. I’m writing it for those who don’t know what the Creative Commons license on the About page means. I’m writing it for those who don’t yet understand why I’m putting my creative genius (silence, there, in the peanut gallery!) on the Web for all to see, making no money and apparently inviting others to simply take what’s here.

There’s lots more explanation to be had than I’m going to offer. Just toddle over to the Creative Commons Web site and you can learn all you ever hoped to and then some. My focus here is on what it means to thee and me.

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