A legal question

[knivesout]

I recently read something to the effect that publishers will consider work that has been posted on internet forums and sites as already being published. Can anyone comment on this?

[I, Brian]

So far as my understanding of electronic rights goes - this is a yet unresolved area, but certain guidelines exist: no more than 13 lines of a short story, and no more than 3 chapters of a novel. After that...

[Hypes]

Thanks for clarifying that.

[Chefo]

Just out of curiosity- if a work has been posted but has since been taken down, does this still count as "being published"?

It makes me feel somewhat nervous because I had a big part of my story posted on an online forum and it had some 3000 hits... I had it taken down, of course, but that may still prove to be somewhat of a problem.

Of course, now that it has been deleted I doubt that any evidence still exists that it was ever posted on-line. I have enough knowledge of SQL to know how on-line databases work...

Any thoughts?

Chefo

[I, Brian]

IMO, if you've ever posted a significant amount of your own work online you should:

a) slap yourself
b) never mention you did it to anyone in publishing

Of course, it differs if the community you posted it was a private one - the restrictions are most importantly with regards to public printing. You can show a novel to a few friends and it won't affect your rights, but if you dump the entire text in a public newsgroup then you have effectively printed your work and the electronic rights belong to whoever it was owned the place you dumped the material in.

All my perception, anyway - I am not a lawyer.

[Chefo]

Isn't that ironic? If I hadn't posted it on-line, I would have never thought about publishing it in the first place. Well, now that it is gone from the www, I'll just have to keep my mouth shut.

Chefo

[I, Brian]

Good idea.

[Vodstok]

So, if, for example, I, were to psot literary material that i worte on MY site, then technically, since i own the site, and have posted my material, I retain all rights.


Wow, how wonderfully redundant

[Hypes]

But it would be published, however, so they might shy away from it.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by Vodstok

So, if, for example, I, were to psot literary material that i worte on MY site, then technically, since i own the site, and have posted my material, I retain all rights.


Wow, how wonderfully redundant

Some places make a point of owning the legal rights to anything published on their software - MSN, for example. That's what I meant.

To be more precise - a publishing company will demand full exclusive ownership of the electronic rights (required after some authors sued his own publishing house for having hard disk copies). If you put a significant part of your work on the internet, you have effectively published it, and therefore are unable to offer exclusive electronic rights.

Or something like that.

Even legally - so far as I know - the waters are muddy. However, the point is to keep publishing houses happy if you are ever planning to publish. Therefore 13 lines tops for short stories, and no more than 3 chapters of a novel, online. Or else...or else you may make life over-complicated for yourself.