Copyright

What are the entitlements granted to a copyright owner? The right to:

• Reproduce the work
• Distribute (publish/sell) copies of the work
• Prepare derivative works (translations, audio version of a book, etc.)
• Perform (recite, act, play) the work
• Display the work
• License any of the above to 3rd parties
• Give copyright away entirely

These rights are exclusive to the author/creator of a work until and unless those rights are assigned or transferred (for example, in a publishing agreement).

Publication agreements commonly require authors to assign their entire copyright over to the publisher in exchange for publishing their work.

• If an author exclusively transfers all of the copyright in a work to a publisher, then the publisher owns the work. The author may not be able to reuse the work without permission or grant permission for others to use the work.
• Consider granting a publisher a non-exclusive right to the work (e.g. for first publication). This allows the author to retain copyright in the work (and the entitlements).

Learn more about retaining your copyright:

• Authorship and Ownership in U.S. Copyright Law
  • FAQ from the Authors Alliance
• Author Rights & the SPARC Author Addendum
  • From the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), resources about author rights and an addendum for modifying publishers’ copyright transfer agreements
• Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine
  • Created by Creative Commons
• SHERPA/RoMEO
  • Online resource that aggregates and analyzes publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis.
• Termination of Transfer
  • Tool from the Authors Alliance and Creative Commons that empowers authors to regain control of their work
• Understanding Rights Reversion: When, Why, & How to Regain Copyright and Make Your Book More Available