The Great Copyright Question
One of the great white whales of this blog has been trying to find a definitive answer to the question of when can authors upload PDFs of their printed work (not for wide distribution but for the purposes of showcasing clips) and when is this a copyright violation? The problem was, I never did find a hard and fast answer. So I’m sharing with you some of my various feedback but if you have heard a definite, final answer on this topic, please email me and let me know and I can share it. So rather than actually doing the job I set out to do, I will share with you various resources on copyright issues.
“There are some great sources of copyright information on the Web,” one writer told me. “The first is the Library of Congress. The other is Nolo Press.”
“One alternative is simply to list the titles and dates on your site, then mention that copies are available on request. You might also want to talk to someone at the Authors Guild or Business Volunteers for the Arts.”
I did ask the Authors Guild, and I believe I did not ask the right question; even though they didn’t provide me an answer, they gave me more resources:
“Dear Ms. Zulkey:
Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of The Authors Guild’s to assist non-Guild members with these types of questions. We suggest you contact an attorney familiar with book contracts or refer to such
helpful books as:
Tad Crawford’s Business and Legal Forms for Authors and Self-publishers
Judith Appelbaum’s How to get Happily Published
Mark Levine’s Negotiating a Book Contract
Matthew Benders Entertainment Industry Contracts
Herb Cohen’s You Can Negotiate Anything
You may also consider contacting The Volunteer Lawyers for The Arts at 212-319-2787. Alternatively, you may also contact the following
resources:
REGISTRATION of Works
Copyright Office of D.C.: (202) 707-5959 (www.loc.gov/copyright/)
Hotline (202) 707-3000
Forms Hotline (202) 707-9100
Library of Congress: (202) 707-5000 (www.loc.gov)
Writers Guild of America:
East (212) 767-7800
West (323) 951-4000 (www.wga.org)
The WGA registers all types of works and they represent screenwriters. The east however, registers all types of works. They do not copyright the work, but hold a copy of it as proof against copyright infringement.”
A bit more on the topic here on our very site.
Finally, scroll down to the bottom right of this page for additional resources on copyright issues.
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