Re: unsolicited contributions

On Tue, 16 May 2000, Barbara Friedman <bfriedman[_at_]mdbe.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, May 14, 2000, Robert A. Baron <rabaron[_at_]pipeline.com> wrote:
> >
> > What does it mean when a journal or newspaper says that "all
> > unsolicited contributions become the property of the journal"?
> > Are they saying that all such contributors cede the copyright of
> > their work to the journal. If so, nothing is spelled out in this
> > transaction; what are the terms, etc. Is this a valid contract
> > anyway? I see no "consideration" here except that the submission
> > is being "considered" <g> for publication. This kind of deal seems
> > to have nothing going for it. Does it mean that an author trying
> > to sell a story, can only submit it to one journal and then loses
> > his copyright? Or am I misunderstanding the meaning of the original
> > phrase?
>
> In my experience this phrase means only that the physical copy
> will not be returned; it does not, not would it be sufficient
> to, transfer the copyright to the journal.

I think it means more. Suppose the publisher puts the manuscript in the "maybe" pile, where it languishes for a number of years. In the meantime, another publisher publishes the manuscript and it becomes a huge success. Under the above language, the first publisher could sell the manuscript as a collector's item without regard to the author's copyright under the first-sale doctrine.

It is one thing for the publisher to say that it will destroy all unused manuscripts. It is quite another to say that it owns the manuscript.

Brad Englund
Halverson & Applegate, P.S.
Yakima, Washington Received on Thu May 18 2000 - 15:38:21 GMT