Who owns the copyright to the webcopy-- client or copywriter?

The best thing is to specify ownership at the start of the project, if this was not clarified at the begining, the writter usually own the copyright

 

To provide clarity for a UK audience, the writer owns copyright unless a contract states otherwise.

 

And just to confuse the UK audience a bit, a contract doesn't legally have to be in writing, hehehe

Sorry, just being facetious, in simple terms - before accepting a writer SPECIFY that on completion and payment ALL RIGHTS INCLUDING OWNERSHIP pass to the buyer.

peace

 

Yes that is correct However this is not merely limited to the UK. It is also worthy of note that there are requirements for a written contract in certain situations, including property transactions and what is legally defined as a promise.

 

This is a good question as I am looking into hiring content writers for the first time.

I see that people have written some opinions but does anyone actually know the law and specific court cases?

 

How many of you actually write and have both parties sign contracts before entering into a deal? Do you mail the writer a copy and have them sign it and send it back to you?

 

I just found this interesting reading to clarify, the Freelancers Copyright Guide, posted at the National Writers Union

www.nwu.org/nwu/index.php?cmd=showPage&page_id=1.2.13.1

 

What does it say?

 

I write specifically in the contract who owns the rights. If the client asks, then I include this in the contract. If the client doesn't ask, then I don't.

 

Unless I sign a contract...I consider the work I do reusable.

 

This is what the US Copyright office says about "work made for hire"
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ9.html

Note the need for a written agreement. Read the whole thing for details.

From the discussion here, it sounds like some writers don't exercise their rights under copyright law to reuse their work. However, if you are buying articles you can't just assume that will be the case.

 

That is the point, a written agreement makes the difference.

 

Hi guys,

Just to clarify the UK situation...

The formation of a contract is not dependant on writing - broadly speaking only deeds relating to corporeal heritable properties, standard securities, charge certificates, etc. require a written and subscribed form to be legally valid. Even in those circumstances, there is a form of personal bar in operation, which means it may not be strictly necessary in some circumstances.

As incorporeal property, that consequently falls outwith the Sale of Goods Act definition, ownership will pass only where there is delivery (i.e. by way of physical/symbolic delivery) and intention to transfer. Therefore it's not a case of 'you must have who owns the copyright in writing' - it is a case of ensuring a meeting of minds - this could be characterised by one party saying to the other 'I expect full copyright' and the other party continuing to work on the project, or by what is customary in similar situations.

The bottom line is you don't need to go as far as a contract, but it is always wise to sort out at the start who gets what and when

 

So there is never a question, a written agreement helps in these situations. The worst thing is to reuse an article or a piece of copy and later on have a client sue you.

I find having agreements with clients eliminates many problems. Of course if the client owns the rights to my work, then the client has to realize the rate for the work is not cheap. Everything has to be taken into consideration.

 

So now that we've established that the writer owns the copyright for the work unless they specifically are granted to the employer, how much more should the writer charge if the employer wants to own the content outright? Twice as much? More?

 

Unless it's a major client that I want in my portfolio, I charge at least a 4 figure buyout fee on copyrights per piece. My articles sell for a couple hundred dollars even for nonexclusive rights though. If you're charging $5 per article, you obviously can't do that. If anything, I use it more to deter them from asking for it. And if they want the copyright for full publishing rights, as opposed to just $1 / word for exclusive online and print licenses, there also has to be a stipulation in writing that my byline is to remain with the work... I don't allow my articles to be ghostwritten... ever. When it comes to non-article writing, I'm more lenient, because most doesn't include an author name anyway. I don't care in those cases if the client wants the full copyright, but it would be stipulated that I have the right to use the piece in an online and/or offline portfolio, claiming credit for the creation.

No matter what you're charging, imo you should absolutely charge more if they want the copyright. That's your most valuable possession as a writer. At the very least, get it in writing saying you can claim you created the work and have it included in a portfolio, even online. If they don't want it published in your portfolio, and you're not agreeing to ghostwrite with no credit at all, then make them guarantee that they'll be hosting it online where you can link to it from a portfolio, and have it in writing that if they remove the piece, you then have the right to add it to your portfolio, so there's always a way for potential clients to access it. I'm soon going to be doing some copywriting/copyediting for a client's two websites, and since obviously they wouldn't want a duplicate content issue of the text posted elsewhere, we agree that I'd have the right to use screenshots of each page I work with for my portfolio to demonstrate the completed project, so that's another option (just don't use screenshots of their design w/o their permission). But for cheap articles, if they demand full rights, I'd tell them to pay a good bit more, or take a hike.

 

Agreed, Jmattern

 

So, jhmattern, if your articles sell for a couple of hundred dollars each, and you charge at least $1000 for full rights, that's about five times what you would charge? And exclusive would be somewhere in between?

I've been ignoring your advice about specifying everything up front, and just found out that someone thought he owned the copyright to what I've been writing. It's not really a problem, because his main concern was doing something about copies appearing elsewhere on the web. It can't meet work-for-hire since I just write about whatever I think of in a category, then send it to him and he pays me. No real order for an article, just a limit on how much he'll spend per month.

However, I should have paid more attention to your advice. I will now make a project of reviewing your posts, visiting your website, and finding out what else I've been doing wrong. No doubt everything.

 

Nearly 3000 posts. My project will take a while, I think.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "5 times what you would charge." Unless it's for someone I really want in my portfolio, or for a good cause, the minimum I charge is $200 per article. Other than that, it's $.35 / word for non-exclusive rights in either print or Web form, $.50 / word for non-exclusive rights in both, $.70 / word for exclusive rights in just one form, and $1 / word for exclusive in both print and electronic form. None of that includes the copyright. I don't base the copyright buyout on how much they paid, but more on the general length, so there's no set rate. But like I said, it's meant to be a way of discouraging it's buyout rather than making more money. 99% of clients have no need for it, even though they think they do, because exclusive rights cover everything they need. The exception is when they want ghostwritten material and aren't willing to even let you claim authorship in a portfolio or something along those lines.

lol I doubt you're doing "everything" wrong. Every writer makes mistakes along the way (a LOT of them), including me and every other writer here no matter how much they're being paid. I'll actually be doing a few posts regarding rights to work, portfolios, and similar topics today at SixFigureWriters.com and AllFreelanceWritingJobs.com though, so be sure to read anything along those lines.