"Against Intellectual Property"

Eric Eldred writes,

>> As a former work-for-hire writer for a Reed Elsevier publisher (you
>> can see some of the stuff I wrote on their Internet pages--I don't
>> get any royalties from them) I actually agree with you, Dodi!

Eric, I think that's some kind of milestone! <g> Seriously, I'm glad we agree that article publishers are something less than fair-dealing when they persuade freelance writers that they have nothing to lose by granting the publishers "nonexclusive" rights for additional uses.

>> Some of the online publishers who are willing to take authors' money
>> and "publish" works online are really not doing authors a
>> favor--these publishers generally do not market books
>> effectively--they don't send authors on book tours

You're evidently speaking, now, of book publishers. Those who "take authors' money" (whether online or off) are of course vanity presses, which are a whole different breed; many (if not most) are simply printing companies, which may do a good production job but haven't promotional experience or savvy.

*Regular* book publishers of course don't take the authors' money at all. The dollars move in the other direction, as an advance against royalties.

>> I think authors' rights definitely ought to be strengthened vis a vis
>> publishers.

Yet again, we're in agreement!

>> A phenomenon that is being hidden by the superficial debate about
>> "eBooks" is that publishers will claim rights to authors' works in
>> cases where they had not before, and thus be able to get a lot more
>> profit from the works, while the author may get the same or less
>> royalty.

Of course they (or anyone) can "claim" only what authors have specifically assigned to them in writing.

>> There have been a few arguments between authors and publishers on
>> electronic rights, and mixed results.

There are several ongoing suits, both long pending and recently instituted.

>> I'd like to work with authors groups to preserve the best role of
>> copyright to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts."

Have you approached any of the many such organizations? What has been the response?

--Dodi Schultz Received on Thu Sep 07 2000 - 17:26:55 GMT