OT: Lawyers on the board, I have a question

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

If you could be so kind, if anyone is familiar with copyright laws or ownership rights, I would greatly appreciate your help here.

I work as a freelance video game journalist for a couple websites. Some are paid, some aren't. On this particular site, I am not paid. From time to time, the owner of the site will take my articles, change their authorship to his name, and then use that to get into conventions or industry trade shows. My question is, do I own my articles or the rights to them? I never signed a contract or agreement, and I am not paid for my work there. There was no monetary exchange for said articles.

Basically I guess what I'm asking is, by law, is he allowed to change the authorship of articles I have written? I know this isn't going anywhere, but I'm about to leave the site and I know that this guy makes at least 100k a year off the website, which is a fact I have just recently come across, and in about two years I have written almost 400 articles for the site which is almost 10% of the total content written (just under 10% of all articles).

I'm backing everything up now onto a wordpress account, which is going to take a while (since I still have access), but if someone who is familiar with this could let me know what they think I would really appreciate it.

 

[RU85inFla]

I am no lawyer but it sounds like you are the author but he owns the content as do you. That doesn't give him the right to change the author. But if you give me an article to publish in my free newspaper, and I publish it, I believe I certainly have the right to republish it unless specified in our agreement. It sounds like you gave your content away for free.

As far as recognition for writing the article, he absolutely can not steal that. That is forgery.

 

[Knight Shift]

This is a question for an attorney who specializes in copyright law. I specialize in patents and trademarks. It has been a while since I have handled a copyright issue. See if there is a chapter of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA) in your area, and set up a meeting. You should learn the basics of copyright law and protecting and asserting your rights. From the information you posted, you MAY have a claim against the person who changed authorship of your work. But there are too many unknowns here--such as did the owner of the site copy your work verbatim? Are there disclaimers or click through licenses on the website? A VLA attorney should be able to review this for you and give you advice.

 

[R1776U]

unless you have a copyright .. you can't do poopie as a free lance writer

 

[R1776U]

i've dealt with poopie like this many times with previous bands i've been in .. and unless you have it on paper(legally written) that it's yours(made by you) then it's up for grabs.. esp considering that the site owner probably has a clause that he can use material as he see fit, which most site owners do

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

This is a question for an attorney who specializes in copyright law. I specialize in patents and trademarks. It has been a while since I have handled a copyright issue. See if there is a chapter of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA) in your area, and set up a meeting. You should learn the basics of copyright law and protecting and asserting your rights. From the information you posted, you MAY have a claim against the person who changed authorship of your work. But there are too many unknowns here--such as did the owner of the site copy your work verbatim? Are there disclaimers or click through licenses on the website? A VLA attorney should be able to review this for you and give you advice.

The authorship on the actual ARTICLE was changed. It wasn't just copied; the article itself was changed and put into another person's name.

unless you have a copyright .. you can't do poopie as a free lance writer

If I were being paid for this work, I would maybe agree, but even then, changing authorship of an article?

Say I did a piece for ScarletNation.com, and John then took the article that I wrote after it had already been published and changed it to be in his name instead of mine. But no contract was ever made and there was no monetary exchange. That is what I am dealing with here.

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

i've dealt with poopie like this many times with previous bands i've been in .. and unless you have it on paper(legally written) that it's yours(made by you) then it's up for grabs.. esp considering that the site owner probably has a clause that he can use material as he see fit, which most site owners do

What if there was never any contract with a said clause, because no contract existed at all? He claims they own it simply because they are incorporated and can change authorship on content I have written for them because of the fact that they are a corporation. I never signed anything, never agreed to allow them to change the authorship on published articles.

 

[R1776U]

if there was never a contract signed then anybody could claim ownership of the article.. it would be a hard argument in court and very tough to back up with no proof that you wrote it for the site

 

[R1776U]

just for future note.. always get it on paper.. free lance means exactly that.. free

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

Well for this site they don't consider me freelance they are saying they consider me to be a volunteer. I don't know if that changes your outlook. If it were true freelance (for this site at least), I would be getting paid or compensated in some way; I'm not.

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

i've dealt with poopie like this many times with previous bands i've been in .. and unless you have it on paper(legally written) that it's yours(made by you) then it's up for grabs.. esp considering that the site owner probably has a clause that he can use material as he see fit, which most site owners do

You can actually go into the articles revision history on wordpress and see that authorship was changed.

 

[R1776U]

volunteer and free lance are kinda the same.. you have to trust that what you write is accredited to you.. and i know @John Otterstedt wouldn't screw you over.. but other people will.. sucks, but that's reality.. i really do feel for ya man

 

[R1776U]

it's like getting punched in the gut without the physical contact

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

Yeah I am actually moving to write for two different sites, and I'm getting it in writing that authorship can never be changed. And you're right; John's a great guy, but there are a lot of people out there that are sketchy. Unfortunately, I learned this too late. The site is fairly reputable too, so it's a shame. I'm now going through the painful process of backing up 400 articles while I still have access to the system before I quit.

 

[R1776U]

that's good man.. i learned it real quick at a young age.. it's amazing what scummy-bum people will do

 

[Knight Shift]

Don't take R1776U's advice. Most of what he says is wrong. Talk to a copyright lawyer.

Ownership inures to the creator of the work, with several exceptions. See this link.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-ownership/

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-protection/

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/registration-and-enforcement/

 

[R1776U]

my advice is solid bro

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

Don't take R1776U's advice. Most of what he says is wrong. Talk to a copyright lawyer.

Ownership inures to the creator of the work, with several exceptions. See this link.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-ownership/

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-protection/

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/registration-and-enforcement/

Wow you pretty much answered my question with that first link.

 

[Knight Shift]

Wow you pretty much answered my question with that first link.

i am being careful here. I did not answer any questions. I don't mean to sound like a stickler, but you really need to review the entire situation with an attorney who practices copyrights. Anything I said above is not legal advice, and I have not checked the accuracy of what was in those links. Good luck. A 5-10 conversation with an attorney versed in copyrights will get you in the right direction.

 

[R1776U]

i am being careful here. I did not answer any questions. I don't mean to sound like a stickler, but you really need to review the entire situation with an attorney who practices copyrights. Anything I said above is not legal advice, and I have not checked the accuracy of what was in those links. Good luck. A 5-10 conversation with an attorney versed in copyrights will get you in the right direction.

i have to agree with KS here(little bit).. it's a very fine line you are walkin man.. @Knight Shift has a point.. (but)take both our advices to consideration

 

[RBS05]

Not a lawyer but what is your goal here? Do you want to get credit for your work, and have him/the site/the world acknowledge that you are the true author? Or do you want some claim to the profits which your "10% of $100K income" seems to be aiming at. The first I can imagine you would have some luck with, in a public-shaming/accountability type of way. But I don't see how you would have any claim to money when you were specifically working for free.

 

[sherrane]

if there was never a contract signed then anybody could claim ownership of the article.. it would be a hard argument in court and very tough to back up with no proof that you wrote it for the site

Question: There might be proof. The internet is archived. There could be a chance the article was archived with his name on it (along with the date and the time of the archive), which could prove he was the author. Would that make any difference?

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

Not a lawyer but what is your goal here? Do you want to get credit for your work, and have him/the site/the world acknowledge that you are the true author? Or do you want some claim to the profits which your "10% of $100K income" seems to be aiming at. The first I can imagine you would have some luck with, in a public-shaming/accountability type of way. But I don't see how you would have any claim to money when you were specifically working for free.

I don't want the money. I just don't want the authorship of my articles changed and used for others to take advantage of.

Question: There might be proof. The internet is archived. There could be a chance the article was archived with his name on it (along with the date and the time of the archive), which could prove he was the author. Would that make any difference?

Actually within the website's tool, it can be proven that I was the author because every revision of the article ever made is recorded. So you can tell who the original author is based on that.

And @Knight Shift sorry yeah I did jump the gun a bit there. It is very informative though and basically it's a very thin line; but regardless of copyright even, there's authorship and whether credit can be taken away the way it was for the purposes of nothing less than fraud.

 

[R1776U]

Question: There might be proof. The internet is archived. There could be a chance the article was archived with his name on it (along with the date and the time of the archive), which could prove he was the author. Would that make any difference?

maybe .. which is why i never discounted it.. it would still be hard to prove though because electronic files can be tampered with

 

[Upstream]

Don't take R1776U's advice. Most of what he says is wrong. Talk to a copyright lawyer.

I would take Knight Shift's advice, especially the part about talking to a copyright lawyer.

Also, you should be clear about what you want accomplished. Do you just want to ensure that you can claim authorship of the articles, or do you want to litigate to compel the website to change the byline to your name.

 

[RBS05]

I don't want the money. I just don't want the authorship of my articles changed and used for others to take advantage of.

In that case, take to social media. Tweet at this guy's followers and who he follows, put a concise summary together with screenshot evidence of what he did, and get the word out. The internet hates this type of stuff.

 

[YoUnG-Ru-FaN-FL]

I would take Knight Shift's advice, especially the part about talking to a copyright lawyer.

Also, you should be clear about what you want accomplished. Do you just want to ensure that you can claim authorship of the articles, or do you want to litigate to compel the website to change the byline to your name.

I just want my authorship and content held intact and not tampered with post-publication.

 

[R1776U]

unless he can prove the content is his, then it wouldn't go in his favor.. which is practically impossible at this point

 

[R1776U]

In that case, take to social media. Tweet at this guy's followers and who he follows, put a concise summary together with screenshot evidence of what he did, and get the word out. The internet hates this type of stuff.

that could work as a non court way of doing it.. social media has a way of "sorting the bastards out"

 

[Upstream]

I just want my authorship and content held intact and not tampered with post-publication.

You could get a lawyer to write a threatening letter. But if he ignores the letters, you would really need to go to court to compel him to put your name back on the webpages.

 

[RickDaglessMD]

Also an attorney (I do commercial lit, not IP). You should absolutely consult a copyright lawyer; that is essentially all that any lawyer worth his salt (like Knight Shift) can tell you. A copyright attorney is specialized in the subject, and can give you actual legal advice and possibly representation if that's the route you end up going. We cannot.

Good luck though, that's a scummy situation.

 

[daneman100]

You need to sit down and talk with a lawyer who practices copyright law. If you cannot afford one at this point I am pretty sure SHU Law still has a VLA chapter.

These issues are fact specific and if you left something out here, the outcome could charge drastically. There is no substitute for sitting down and getting a consultation.