I’d like to harness some of the talent on this board to collaboratively write some lyrics; I envisaged that this would involve the various contributors explicitly mentioning (when they post their contributions) that they grant permission for their work to be used. Will this work? Seems a bit of a grey area, as I would be republishing content from this board, albeit with the full permission of the authors.
Or would I have to work around this by asking them to post it and email me a copy (which seems a pointless complication).
I’m not an expert on copyright law, nor (of course) do I speak for the Reader’s legal counsel. But I’d say that a clear statement in the OP to the effect that “By posting in this thread, you are giving consent to me, Mangetout, to use your contributions in a published work, granting me the same sort of non-exclusive copyright as you’re granting the Chicago Reader, Inc. in posting on this board” would be sufficient. Perhaps bolded to ensure that other members are aware of it.
That’s what I thought; perhaps reposted on each page of the thread (if it doesn’t just die a death), and if reinforced by a statement of understanding on each relevant contribution that “I, Doper, hereby grant Mangetout nonexclusive right to republish the above”.
It’s just that this does actually contradict the letter of “No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted without express written consent of the Chicago Reader, Inc.” Hence my concern.
Why are you omitting the following clause?
You do not give up anything to the Reader in regard to your own work. They can non-exclusively use it. That is all the rights they keep.
Please tell me that the poison spread by a recently suspended poster has not infected the common sense and reading ability of the rest of the Dopers.
There’s nothing wrong with my reading comprehension, thanks.
I omitted the following clause because it’s me that would be republishing the work, not the original authors; I would be republishing something that had come into my possession solely through the board (unless we did the email tandem thing) this makes it a sufficiently grey area that I felt it necessary to ask here before embarking upon the project.
There’s some inherent copyright protection as is – each retains rights to what they write – but you really need to see an attorney to hash out the details on this. IANAL and in no way hold myself out to be an expert on this subject.
Would we object to this? No, as long as it’s understood we’re not getting into any ownership battles. The Reader has rights, and you have rights, and the rest y’all need to work out for yourselves before you post anything.
TubaDiva