Intellectual Rights, Copyrights, and Protecting Your Work

Click on symbol for Wikipedia's article on copyright.

Long-time IWW member and experienced freelancer Mona Vanek was on hand to answer a question about the value of rights, one that came to me from a nonfiction list member who had been contacted by a television producer.

Mona said, "Ivan Hoffman's site is a good place to learn about the intellectual rights you market as are NWU and ASJA ."

Mona also allowed the IWW blog to include this material, which she notes is "Excerpted from my free writing resources course and should include the following disclaimer: Excerpted from Chapter 5, "Access The World by Internet -- And Write Your Way To $$$." (c) 2007 by Mona Leeson Vanek.


Copyrights, Using Quotations, and Previous Published Works

• US Copyright Office official site: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

Several private web sites explain US copyright law. These are two of
the best I've found:

• Brad Templeton's "10 Big Myths about copyright explained," at http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html,
• Alan Gahtan's, The Cyberlaw Encyclopedia, at http://gahtan.com/cyberlaw.
• (TIP: Be sure to refer to their Terms of Use.)

Newspaper copyrights

Everything in the newspaper is copyrighted. None of it -- except the actual information -- is public domain. There is a legal reason to not plagrize a newspaper. The paper *probably* won't do anything about it if you make copies to hand to your group, but if you take one of their articles and resell it as your own, I bet they would find you quick. They can -- and would be more than willing -- to do something about it. It is considered unethical to plagarize newspapers. What is not copyrightable is the actual news -- the facts. You can read a news article in the paper, and reword it, using
them as your only source, and be perfectly legal. It's sloppy, but legal. But if you use their lead, organization, format, and conclusion, you're plagarizing.

Newspapers, magazines, books, newsletters, brochures, those little flyers you pick up in the doctor's office.

• If it's written down, it's copyrighted.

Database of copyrights

• Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of TX web site contains a link to WATCH File. http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu

The WATCH File (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) is a database containing primarily, but not exclusively, the names and addresses of copyright holders or contact persons for authors and artists whose archives are housed, in whole or in part, in libraries and archives in North America and the United Kingdom. (TIP: You'll find useful information regarding copyrights and holders by exploring
all of the links.)

• Answers to questions here: http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/us.cfm

Website Copyright

• Laws protect website graphics, content, everything, from being used without permission. Study the Cyberlaw Encyclopedia at -- http://www.gahtan.com/cyberlaw/.

Termination of copyrights

• www.copylaw.com
• Important new article "Copyright Termination: How Authors (and theirHeirs) Can Recapture their pre-1978 Copyrights."http://www.copylaw.com/new_articles/copyterm.html.

Screen writing

• The University of Illinois website -- Unit For Cinema Studies: http://www.uiuc.edu/unit/cinema/links/index.htmlhas links to excellent information. It's an excellent place to begin learning about this genre.

Screenwriters

• http://Screenwriters.com, gives you entry to the Hollywood Film Festival site: http://www.hollywoodawards.com/index.html. Click About Us, and surf until you're satiated.

Other film industry sites are:

• Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: http://www.oscars.org/.
• The Chesterfield Film Co.: www.chesterfield-co.com/.
• Screen Writers Federation: http://www.screenwritersfederation.org/.
• Screen Writers Vault: http://www.screenwritersvault.com/ Read Writers Resources\FAQ.

*NOTE: The material is for educational use only and may not be used for any other purpose and may not be published in any format due to the nature of releases secured from website owners. (Vanek provides her 10-week e-mail based course free on request).