Published on March 11, 2015
legal
I want to publish my novel with BookLocker (it’s my nature) about liability, as the novel is based on a true story. I’ve read your articles, as well as many others, about this issue, but am hesitant to proceed even after doing the obvious–changing characters’ names, appearances, and facts, so they don’t resemble the real people or exact events. Some of the principles of the true story are deceased, but at least one that I know of is still living. I think you mentioned that a lawyer should vet a novel, but I can’t afford that. My question: Am I worrying needlessly?
Published on August 27, 2014
legal
Has someone recently told you it’s okay to grab, alter, and republish someone else’s material from Pinterest or another website? If so, you should be very wary of that individual’s ethics and so-called expertise…
Published on October 2, 2013
legal
When pulling art or photography from the Internet, most authors know to be careful about copyright protection. Most of the work found online cannot be copied without the expectation of a DMAC take-down notice from an artist’s attorney, so most writers focus their searches on stock photo sites instead. These sites, usually owned by massive multimedia conglomerates, sell licenses to photographs and vector artwork at reasonable prices. Professional and DIY cover designers alike rely on stock sites as a source of affordable, safe art. Unfortunately, not all stock art is trustworthy…
Published on August 8, 2012
legal
Ug! It happened again! We were contacted last week by a woman claiming to be the daughter of one of our authors. After logging into his author account, she posted a note, saying he’d died last month and she wanted his future royalty checks mailed to her. I checked the author’s contract and – UH OH. In the beneficiary clause, the author had assigned his copyrights, control of his author account, and all future royalties to someone else (a female friend / associate), not to his daughter.
Published on March 14, 2012
legal
I hope that you’re doing well. I read and printed the article about self therapy and I’m interested in writing personal experience stories. However, do I need to worry about lawsuits?
Published on December 29, 2010
copyrights, legal
I saw your post on the WritersWeekly board and I see that you were able to help other writers in a similar situation.
Yesterday, I became aware that a publisher used a short story in their anthology without my knowledge or consent.
Published on August 18, 2010
legal
This week, I received an email asking me to comment on a situation regarding textbook publishers suing individuals for publishing “answers to homework problems.” It’s briefly discussed on techdirt.com HERE. In a nutshell, some publishers of textbooks are suing authors/publishers of guides that contain answers to the questions in those textbooks, claiming they are derivative works. I have to agree. When someone else uses your original work for profit it is, well, just plain wrong, and very likely illegal.
Published on May 26, 2010
copyrights, legal, writing scams
I recently had a bizarre run-in with a copyright-infringing web site owner who went crazy when I found that they’d illegally published one of my articles. But their extreme response taught me a valuable lesson that I now want to share with you. It’s a lesson about making sure you keep your private information private – always.
Published on July 29, 2009
legal
It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon when I began scanning one of the several Internet law blogs that I read with some degree of regularity.
The post happened to be a bit longer than normal and as I scrolled down I noticed a reference to two of my books published by BookLocker in the blog’s right sidebar. Thinking that this might be a link to BookLocker’s site on which these books are listed or, perhaps, a review by a reader, I clicked on the first title, The Discipline Book.
Instead of a link to BookLocker, which publishes a number of my books, or a review, I was greeted by the book’s title page. Hmmm, I thought as I scrolled down, perhaps the blogger has posted some examples from the text. Not so, I quickly learned. Instead of seeing a review, or a link to BookLocker, or an excerpt or two from the book, I was confounded to see the entire text of the book, all 564 pages of it, posted on the site.
