Professional writers' organizations offer guidance and model contracts to author members. The Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), along with The Authors Guild, has been in the forefront of monitoring unauthorized use of members' works on the web.
http://www.sfwa.org/contracts/elec.htm
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This seems like a really good resource for science fiction writers that also would apply to other genres. Did you explore any of the other resources the statement provides?
ReplyDeleteLet me point out what I think is a really important part of the SFWA statement that pertains to libraries and electronic rights:
ReplyDelete"We advocate that the new electronic infostructure be priced within the reach of the ordinary consumer, and that libraries, schools, and other public institutions be provided with access points. It is important not to divide the world into those who have the right to read information and those who don't.
The technology exists to enable individual authors, small presses, and writer co-ops to publish and distribute on the network, and to have their payments and royalties electronically collected. Small publishers and self-publishers should not be priced out of this market. We advocate that the price of technology, distribution, and royalty collection must remain within the reach of small publishers.
The Authors' Registry is an important step toward parity in this area. We commend SFWA for its support of the Registry and urge all SFWA authors to register.
Unauthorized duplication steals from all authors and publishers. We advocate:
•The development of easy, legal ways to use electronically stored information while paying for it.
•The development and use of methods to track copies of works, including authentication checksums and embedding of electronic signatures.
•The rewriting of US law to give US authors equal protection with signatories of the Bern Convention on copyright law.
•US governmental cooperation against piracy, including actions and sanctions against pirates.
The libraries of the future are likely to be repositories of electronically distributed documents as well as books. They are already taking advantage of electronic distribution. N libraries, each of which once bought one copy of a hardback book, are becoming one library consortium loaning out smaller numbers of copies and keeping track of them electronically. In the future, libraries will presumably develop some sort of loan scheme for electronic documents.
We support public libraries, but urge them to be aware that, in their role as information resource, they may compete with other electronic means of distribution.
As publishers move toward electronic publication, issues of preservation become urgent. Times change, operating systems change, and some fairly important works, e.g. Thomas Disch's Amnesia, are now on the verge of being lost for technical reasons. We urge publishers, distributors, and authors, to be aware of the preservation issues involved in electronic distribution and adaptation, and we ask them to take all appropriate steps, including retaining uncompiled masters of electronic works and adaptations."
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Thanks for this elaboration. I think SFWA makes a tremendous statement here.
ReplyDeleteI looked at model licenses and licensing guidelines in my blog. One of the model licenses by John Cox, authored around 2000, includes a clause about the publisher's role in preservation. It states: "On termination of this License, the publisher shall provide continuing access for Authorised Users to that part of the Licensed Materials which was published and paid for within the subscription period, either from the Server [or from the archive described in 7.4] or by supplying [electronic files] [CD-ROMs] [printed copies] to the Licensee [subject to payment of such fess as the parties may agree] [except where such termination is due to a breach of the License by the Licensee which the Licensee has failed to remedy as provided in 10.1.1 and 10.1.2 of this License{, in case such continuing access shall be provided in respect of Licensed Materials published up to the date of such breach}]."
While this is not exactly the same thing that SFWA is speaking about, it is along the similar lines. In my opinion authors really should be clients of publishers (like libraries are clients of publishers), and therefore have certain rights in asking for long-term preservation of works.