Fiction

[Erik L (OP)]

A recent post struck me and I wanted to make a comment about it.

As far as I am concerned, and I hope the authors agree here, all copyrights of the fiction belong to the individual authors. Under US copyright law, the first publishing of a work sets the copyright. It is also my understanding that electronic publishing such as this counts. However, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or anyplace else.

If anyone is concerned about their copyright rights, I'd suggest speaking with a lawyer about it. And I will definitely work with anyone towards securing their rights.

[Beersatron]

That reminds me about something I saw mentioned on a private forum I am part of.

unfortunately I can not remember the original article or what search term to use in Google to get the information but the gist of is was something like:

If you quote in full an article or piece of work from one site to another without the express permission of the original author then the host of the site you are reposting on can be prosecuted.

Now, I may have that wrong so maybe double check it, but the keywords that I think I remember are that the host can be prosecuted and not necessarily the person who copied it over.

It may help (or it might not ...) if you have some kind of disclaimer that as host you accept no responsibility for quoted articles?

[MattyD]

Also, the fact that it is posted on a public forum means that it is already published, so in the event of someone looking for an agent for their work it is no longer a viable unpublished work.

Absolutewrite forums get around this with a password for the share your work section of their forums. The password is available for all to read in header section of that part of the forums but the fact that you have to type it in the first time to enter there means that the work is still 'unpublished'.

And I'm not an expert but copyright exists the moment the work is created, not first publishing. Of course I'm more suited to advise people here on methods of joining steel together than legal affairs so take this all with a pinch of salt.

If there are any lawyers around, an AAR based on a game..... would Steve have possible rites to a part of the work? Curiosity here, although my work Gary Trotter and the Swarm Mothership is doing the rounds with imaginary agents as I type.

[Erik L (OP)]

I'll have to check, but I don't think the fiction forums are open to guests. Which means they are in fact password protected.

I'd think Steve's only copywritten works are his fiction and Aurora. Saying Steve gets a slice of the copyright on others' fiction is like saying Microsoft gets a slice because it was written in Word.

The last time I checked, as soon as it was printed, it was under copyright protection. However, that did not incorporate any online forums.

As a side note, anyone who posts copywritten material without permission will get a warning and the post removed if/when I find out about it.

[ardem]

Hahhaha I don't think anything I write is worth publishing. But good luck to them if they try, the editors needed to correct my grammar will outweigh any buying rights.

but who know i may get better.

[ShadoCat]

Hahhaha I don't think anything I write is worth publishing. But good luck to them if they try, the editors needed to correct my grammar will outweigh any buying rights.

but who know i may get better.

You already have.