An article of mine was published, and in my contract it says (As usual) that any subsidiary of the company/publication can use it, etc, etc. But someone from my journal GOOGLE-d my name and came across the article on a Euro newspaper's site, without permission from the original place of publication and myself, the author. (Excuse me if I sound completely stupid and rhetorical)

I wrote to the editors of the paper, but haven't heard back. To the best of my knowledge, the paper isn't related with the original magazine and it's a pretty large paper, as is the original site. I'm just wondering what my rights are, if I have any as the author, if I should let the main site that's housing my work handle it, if it's completely out of the question to even try and obtain any answers from the paper seeing as since they're a Euro paper, they could go around copyrights easily (From what I know, which is limited, on US/Euro copyrights)

I know at least a few people who frequent the board write for a living, either for papers or magazines or online sites, and I was hoping that some of you could just give me some advice? Sorry again if I sound dumber then Kid Rock's shoe, but I'm just trying to cover all my bases.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2001

Answers

Lauren, maybe WriterGirl can give you some knowledgable help with this issue. I would advise you to contact the magazine that originally published (and, I assume, paid you to write) the article in question. They probably know the legalities and how to deal with this situation, or at least have the means to find out and pursue it. This might be a tough row to hoe on your own, but with the magazine advocating for you (and for their own interests, if they have any) you could probably get a cease and desist at least.

Also if the your work was originally published on a web site, the Euro Paper might not be able to get away with copyright infringement as easily as you think, for Euro/US reasons anyway.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001

I don't have much experience with this; really you probably want to solicit advice from a lawyer (Jessamyn?).

It depends on what kind of rights your original magazine bought. If they bought FNASR (first North American serial rights, which is often standard), then the copyright reverts back to you upon publication. If they bought more exclusive rights, then they're the ones who will want to battle the Eurothieves.

I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your usual publisher, but they should have an in-house attorney with some knowledge of copyright law; you might want to talk to that person and see what your rights are. You might stand more of a chance with the piece being available online, but my guess is your odds of collecting are pretty low; better if you've got the in-house lawyer making a stink for you.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002