Magazine owns my voluntarily contributed article?

Not as a lawyer but as a fairly widely published professional writer over the past several decades, I write in reply to islam_for_life, who says:

>> I sent an article of mine to a couple of magazines, some based in
>> the US and others elsewhere.

You shouldn't have done that. A publication has every right to assume (as Frederick Emrich suggested in his reply) that it is being offered exclusive first rights in the material, at least in its distribution area, unless you've stated otherwise in an accompanying letter.

>> Two magazines (one in the US, one in the UK) responded, saying they
>> were interested, but at the same time, I came to know that another
>> magazine (based in the US) had already printed my article without
>> informing me.

That wasn't courteous or professional of them (although your submission certainly implied that you wished the magazine to publish it). There should have been a communication to you proposing terms, if not actually offering a fee.

>> I was now confused as to whether I could let the other two magazines
>> who had actually replied, print my piece or not.

Why not? You would have to inform them, of course, of the prior publication; otherwise each would have the right to assume that it had neither been offered to, nor published by, anyone else.

>> When I called those who had printed my piece to ask regarding this...

You had no obligation to ask.

>> ...they said sure, we give permission, but the other magazines must
>> cite us as the source.

They have no standing to be "giving permission", and reprinters have no obligation to cite the first publisher as a "source", although a courteous author--under normal circumstances, which these decidedly are not--generally is obliged (by professional custom, not by law) to request that the reprinter mention where the piece first appeared and that it is being reprinted with the author's permission (not the first publisher's, unless copyright has been assigned; see below).

>> I don't agree with them, because, firstly, I requested to be
>> informed before publication of my article which they didn't...

See above, but irrelevant.

>> ...and secondly, because I did not receive any monetary compensation
>> or anything of the sort from the magazine...

The matter of compensation is also irrelevant.

>> ...or even any contract that would stipulate that by simply
>> submitting my article to their email address I give away my entire
>> rights to my original work to them...

You don't, and you didn't.

>> ...(not that my work is really copyrighted by law),...

Yes it is. I am assuming that you are in the US. Your message included no mention of your assigning your copyright to anyone else; I am assuming, therefore, that you didn't.

>> ...and thirdly, the other two magazines received my work directly
>> from me.

Well, yes, but also irrelevant.

Continuing to assume that you are in the US, here's the situation:

Copyright in a work exists from its creation--specifically, as soon as it is "fixed in a tangible medium", which may be a piece of paper, a rock, or the disk in your computer. It is the author's, assuming the author is acting independently and the work has not been created in the course of employment by someone else, until or unless it is transferred or assigned to someone else.

Scott Butcher is thus right in declaring that the copyright remains yours. He errs in suggesting that the magazine publishing your piece infringed your copyright (you submitted it for publication there), and he is also mistaken in saying that both parties must sign a transfer of copyright (only the owner need do so; he is probably thinking of Work Made for Hire agreements, a whole other topic)--but he is correct in saying that the assignment must be in writing.

Now, how to deal with these three magazines? There is, as I said, no obligation to obtain the blessing of, or to give credit to, the magazine that has already published your article. The other US periodical that has expressed interest must be advised by you of the first publication (magazine and date) and you must be sure they understand that you are now offering not first North American serial rights but reprint rights. The magazine in the UK must be advised by you that the article has already appeared in print in the US (again, specify periodical and date) and that you are offering--well, whatever you wish to offer, say, first UK rights, or first European rights (depends on where else you've sent it).

For the future, it would be well for you to acquaint yourself with US copyright law, which may be found at a variety of Websites--e.g., http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/ (it's Title 17 of the United States Code) and http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ . It's also available very inexpensively in paperback book form; call the Gov't Printing Office at (866) 512-1800 or order at http://bookstore.gpo.gov/

--Dodi Schultz Received on Tue Jun 21 2005 - 21:35:00 GMT