The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 24, June 17, 2007, Article 12

PUBLISHER COPYRIGHTS AND THE WRITER-FOR-HIRE COPYRIGHT WRINKLE

In response to Larry Gaye's copyright question, Ed Snible writes:
"A publisher going out of business doesn't give you any extra legal
rights to reproduce works.  The publisher probably wasn't the
copyright holder.  Even if the publisher did own the copyright, it
would have transferred to a creditor during bankruptcy, not to the
public domain.

"Many of Argonaut's books were themselves reprints.  It is possible
the chart you wish to reproduce is already in the public domain, or
is substantially similar to an old chart.  If the book is an unchanged
reprint from a book before 1922, you can use it without getting
permission.

"Chris Hopkins' site reproduces some Greek letter tables from coin
books.  You might be able to contact the author for permission.
parthia.com/fonts/greek.htm.  You might also be able to
use one of the charts Chris has made to show off his font.

"I am working on a chart.  Some of my links no longer
work. snible.org/coins/alphabet.html .

"If you want lower case, the site textkit.com has many books on
learning Ancient greek, all free and freely reusable.  Most language
books start with a table of the Greek alphabet."

Harry Waterson writes: "Copyrights do not always stick to the writer.
There is also the 'Writer For Hire' who is given a writing assignment
by a producer/publisher and is paid a fee and maybe a royalty for his
services. Here the copyright sticks to the company and not the writer.
This is part of the puzzle that the Writers Guild of America is trying
to address in their upcoming negotiations.

"TV and Film writers do not own their copyrights so any compensation
for residual uses has to be negotiated. There is also a fairly
complicated Reversion clause or two in the WGA agreement that
returns ownership of a script to the writer after a period of time
and lack of production. If you know a Film Writer you might ask
him about the charms of having a script 'In Turnaround'.

"The best reversion story I know comes out of the Dramatist's Guild.
'Norman, Is That You?' was produced on Broadway by Saint Subber. It
ran for 19 performances. Had it run for 21 performances, all rights
to the play would have vested in the production company and the
investors. Since it only ran 19, the rights to the property reverted
back to the writers and they went on to see a movie made of the play
and to see the play become one of the most produced plays in the
Samuel French catalog. It is playing somewhere in the country every
day of the year. I believe the writers send the investors a Christmas
card every year.

"I once sought the stage rights to a book by Paul Gallico. I had a
search done and discovered that there was a German publisher who
maintained that Gallico had written the book as a Writer For Hire
and was just waiting in the wings for someone to do something with
the property. I could not get insurance with this impediment so the
impetus to my project languished.

"I recently heard that the Gallico Estate has sold the stage rights
of the book to be developed as a musical. I hope the German publisher
has gone out of business.  The book is 'The Man Who Was Magic'
published in 1966. Paramount had the rights for years. This musical
version will have book by Rupert Holmes, music by Michel Legrand
and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. I can't wait to see it.
And read the copyright info in the program."

[The copyright code does describe this situation but I didn't excerpt
it for The E-Sylum.  Thanks for the real-world background.  And
speaking of backgrounds, it never ceases to amaze me that our
E-Sylum readers come from such varied places and backgrounds.
-Editor]

 COPYRIGHT QUESTION - DOES IT MATTER IF THE PUBLISHER STILL EXISTS?
 esylum_v10n23a19.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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