Copyright and Publishing Concerns, at Mosaic Musings Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hi all!

We've been discussing both Copyright and Publishing Rights of Internet boards recently and I wanted to let everyone know that Peter aka Imhotep will be meeting with an Intellectual Property/Copyright Attorney this coming Tuesday, Nov 4, 2003, on our behalf. This is exciting!

While a member at other boards, these topics rarely ever surfaced in my case. All three boards were 'Public' and it was assumed that anything we post is copyright protected.

For a thorough definition on 'What is a Copyright?' and 'Copyright on the Internet' PLEASE visit this link: http://whatiscopyright.org/

The Mentors and I have been preparing a list of questions, some basic and some more advanced for discussion. Here are some of the items:

1. If a work is posted on the internet, in any forum at all, does it still retain the author's right to copyright. or is it regarded as free share.

2.  By posting at MM, do I, the poet, grant MM my First Publication rights?  Or, is First Publication Rights a negotiable concept, via each publisher's opinion?

3. When a poem is posted on a critique site, is it by copyright standings, workshopped and therefore not considered published? Or does there need to be a delete period of that said thread in order to hold full copyright and for it to be considered as "not published?"

4. Will posting in a critique forum (or otherwise) at MM, immediately render a work 'unpublishable' by certain publishers?

5. Does the distinction between 'public' forum and 'private' forum postings make a difference in the eyes of a publisher? Are they BOTH held to the same standard view of 'published' by virtue of the posting on the Web itself?

We will update everyone after the meeting next week. This may well determine the outcome of going 'Private' or adding 'private forums' to MM.

Regards!
Mosaic Musings Staff

[Cleo_Serapis]

Here are some preliminary responses to a few of our questions:

Just to clarify: We are consulting attorneys primarily to protect ourselves and the site for any liabilities that may come down the road. In doing so, we are happy to ask them generic questions on copyright, author rights and publication, but this should not be construed that we are representing individuals on site.

With regard to Publication and First Rights:

By closing your work with the following;
"All rights reserved by (insert your name) as an unpublished work"
this will help to prevent posted works from being interpreted as being published works.

Additionally, when critiquing works, when possible, only copy excerpts of the work, rather than the entire work. This is due to a potential "perception" complication of re-producing the work itself.

Pending further review, the attorneys do NOT believe a status of a forum (private or public) makes any difference as to whether or not a work is considered published. Basically, U.S. case law regarding the 1976 revision of the copyright act defines "publication" as distributing or copying (phono records) of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, with NO explicit or implicit restriction with respect to disclosure of the content. Therefore, as long as the purpose is NOT primarily intended to be further distribution of the work without restriction, it should NOT be considered published. Since we not selling it (MM) or intending to sell any works, and your posting intent is not reproduction, it should not be considered "a published work".

Copyright:

By posting a your work here at MM, the only protection under copyright the author gives up, is permission for MM to 'display' and 'archive' the work. All other rights are retained by the author. To help preserve your rights, insure new works contain the standard copyright line and/or the unpublished disclaimer as above when posted.

It does not matter if your work is posted under a psuedonym, it is still copyright protected by the author of such works.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to answer specific quirks related to non-U.S. copyright law.

We know this is not yet complete, but it's a start. We will be meeting with the attorneys again to get into more details and review the COC and other documents pertaining to the site.

Hope this helps!

Your comments are appreciated!
Lori (Cleo)    & Peter (Imhotep)