Forum: Author Hangout

Disney takes it's reputation as child/family friendly very seriously.

They also want their Danegeld for using their name in child friendly books.

I agree with DS about the 'names' issue. That kind of warning is generally only used when you're purposely making fun of someone, such as a satirical book.

Your artwork clause is fine for Creative Commons images, but doesn't apply for anyone else. Most stock image sites list specifically what to include. It usually consists of the title of the artwork, the creator and the site the artwork can be found at. I generally include links to the artwork (in my ebooks) so fans can find it if they're interested. However, I put these credits in my Attributions section.

Finally, it's not recommended to list the "publisher" of your book. As an independent publisher, you're the publisher, and sites like createspace, Amazon, smashwords and lulu are simply resources for distributing and selling them. In fact, many sites expressly forbid you from labeling them in the copyright section (Apple's a pain about this, as they don't want anyone to assume they 'authorized' the work).

Finally, the first two paragraphs are pretty much what most sites suggest you include. The only addition is a warning that readers aren't allowed to lend the book. But since few readers will ever read the copyright page, it's a waste of time.

Finally, it's not recommended to list the "publisher" of your book. As an independent publisher, you're the publisher, and sites like createspace, Amazon, smashwords and lulu are simply resources for distributing and selling them.

The advice I've gotten on this varies with the source. However, officially the ISBNs are issued to Publishers so if you get them through a source, and not direct, then you should list that source as the Publisher just to keep the official records balanced.

Most of the big publishers have in-house art departments that create the cover art under work for hire, so the publisher owns the art work.

And that reminds me of the other thing I was going to say.

With cover art you have to be very careful where you get the images from and the terms under which you can use them. I've rejected a lot of good images because they didn't allow the use of front covers or back covers - which means I can't use them on books without getting their written permission after paying them for the right.

Also, there are some websites where you can get images for almost anything, but check their terms because some allow the use for any commercial usage except front covers and back covers - that is no book covers at all. Some also allow you to use the images for book covers, but do not allow you to on sell your rights to use the images. Thus you can use their images for making a book cover and sell those books yourself, you can't sell another person the right to use that image when you sell them the right to publish the book.

As you mention, the publishers often use their own artists and own the cover art copyright, thus you can't use it for any independent publications or if you go to another publisher. That's why the cover art for some of the books I have at Lulu are different to the cover art at dpdotcom - where they differ is where dpdotcom own the artwork, but a lot of the artwork at both is my own work and thus legal to use at both.

typo edit

Apple has expanded it's product lines considerably.

They even have a banking app called: iSteal

I had a question when I read that each posting here was copyrighted by its author. We are copying some or most of some postings to reply to it. Aren't we violating copyright?

You're quoting someone and Lazeez even has it set up to give credit to where the quote came from. That's not violating copyright.

I had a question when I read that each posting here was copyrighted by its author. We are copying some or most of some postings to reply to it. Aren't we violating copyright? Or is there some permission given to make partial copies when making a discussion?

By posting story components, you're proving you were working on a given story at a particular date, which helps establish copyright. If another author here incorporated the text into their own stories, copyright would apply and you could sue them. It's more protection than threat of 'fair use'.

Even if someone wanted to make trouble (in the US), without a registered copyright they can only get actual damages, the problem with this is of course that the market value of a post to a public or semi-public forum is basically $0.00

That depends. If someone takes a plot idea, and uses quotes from a story that you're working on, and then goes on to publish a book which sells a gazillion copies, then the "market value" is based on their sales, not on the value of the words on a forum site. A copyright suit would attempt to recover the lost sales "market value lost".

I'm not talking about stories, I'm talking about forum posts.

They're both covered by copyright protection, but there's more inherent value in a stolen story than there is in another internet rant. We discuss a lot of story ideas here. After all, someone might run off with my James Bond story idea (cough, cough, Aubie). ;D