Today, at 5 PM Eastern Time (2 PM Pacific), I’ll be giving a presentation called Protecting Your Rights and Your Wallet. I’ll discuss copyrights and how to protect them from ‘theft by contract.’ My goal is help writers spot overreaching contract provisions. Below I have pasted some samples I will use in the presentation. Hope you can join me.
Sign up here: Non-Fiction Writers Conference
Sample Overreaching Granting Clause
Grant of Rights. The Author agrees that the XYZ has the exclusive right to produce, publish, reproduce, transmit, perform, display, sell and distribute the Work or any part thereof, and to prepare derivative works based upon the Work, in all media now known or hereafter devised, including without limitation all electronic and digital media, audio, visual, dramatization, and subsidiary rights, in all languages throughout the world and to sublicense and authorize others to do so.
Distribution License Granted. Throughout the Term of this Agreement, You grant to Us the exclusive, transferable, worldwide license to manufacture, store, use, display, execute, reproduce (in whole or in part), transmit, modify (including to create derivative works), import, make, have made, offer to sell, print, publish, market, distribute, and sell (individually or as part of compilations of collective works), and license for use via any subscription model, through all distribution channels (now or hereafter known, including online and electronic distribution channels), and otherwise exploit in any language, in print form, digital format, audio book format, or via any other medium, now known or hereafter devised, the Work. (Authors Solutions)
Sample Narrow Granting Clauses
Self-Publishing format:
Author hereby grants and assigns to Smashwords the nonexclusive worldwide right to digitally publish, distribute, market and sell (“Publish”), and to license others to do so, the work identified on the front page of your submission (the “Work”). Since the terms of agreement with Smashwords, herein, is non-exclusive, the Author or Publisher is free to Publish, license, market and sell their work elsewhere so long as the Author or Publisher is not violating someone else’s agreement or violating any laws. . . . The copyright in the Work shall belong to the Author or the party that Author cites as the copyright holder.
Sample Trade-publishing contract:
Grant of Publishing Rights. The Author hereby grants to the Publisher the sole and exclusive right to publish (i.e., print, publish, and sell) the Work in print and digital (e-book) formats, in the English language, in the United States of America, its territories and dependencies, and in Canada, during the term of this Agreement and any renewals and extensions thereof, except as provided herein.
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