Re: guilds

On 06/08/2000, Dodi Schultz <schultz[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 07 Jun 2000, Ransford Pyle <pyle[_at_]mail.ucf.edu> wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> > for most of us, the copyright law is an empty protection because
> > we gave our rights to our publishers in order to get published.
>
> That may be true in textbook publishing, Ran. It is not so in
> trade publishing. Copyright is normally retained by, and registered
> in the name of, the author. Pick up a few books in bookstores, and
> you'll see.
>
> > I would appreciate some authoritative sources that might indicate
> > possible means to wrest those rights from a publisher for breach of
> > contract.
>
> I assume that if the contract assigns the copyright to the publisher,
> unless the author signed under some sort of extreme duress, the
> contract would be legally binding.
>
> > I am not optimistic about the authors' chances but a guild or union
> > might have the clout to do some arm-twisting.
>
> The logical organization to bring pressure on this issue would be
> TAA (Text and Academic Authors); I've often wondered why it has
> failed to do so. It does offer its members legal advice, and the
> last I heard, a lawyer well-known in this area served on the TAA
> council. If you're a TAA member, you might urge the group to
> become more active.

Dodi, thank you for clearing me up on the trade books. My two books were strictly classroom textbooks and my university colleagues write either textbooks or texts. I immediately went to my office shelves, which are mostly texts and textbooks, and I found university presses (texts) seem to all have imposed their own copyrights. Since this is all a matter of contract, I suspect the difference lies primarily in the relative power of the publisher and the author, and, of course the savvy of the author. In academia I have heard some real horror stories. I personally was fortunate to have a wonderful editor for my first edition but it has gone downhill ever since (I'm working on a third edition at the moment). So I have a very jaded view of copyright, perhaps not entirely fair.

Ran Pyle
<pyle[_at_]mail.ucf.edu> Received on Fri Jun 09 2000 - 19:19:05 GMT