[LINK] itNews: Copyright-Owners Oppose ALRC

[Jan Whitaker]

At 06:04 PM 7/08/2013, Kim Holburn wrote:
>like from the author in return for regular payments of royalties. In 
>other words ... the author would retain the copyright.
>
>I don't believe so.  Authors rights were only under sufferance.

When a 3rd party is involved, say a publisher, the rights are 
whatever are negotiated in the contract. The author holds the rights 
automatically upon creation -- not the state or anyone else. It's up 
to the creator to decide what they want to do with those rights -- 
assign them to a 3rd party, give the work away for free, destroy it, 
edit it, make derivative works from it (film from the book, e.g.). 
Publishers are fighting a losing battle -- very hard. Their business 
model is in its dying days, just like news outlets and other media.

There is a guy on Kickstarters who is crowd-sourcing funding to 
publish anthologies (check out Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs 
Aliens), for example, because publishers aren't doing it any more. 
And people are publishing all sorts of stuff via Amazon and 
Smashwords with little editorial involvement (for good or ill on that 
front!), and retaining copyright just fine. It's just hard-copy 
printing and distribution that publishers are needed for any more. 
They don't even do much marketing. Authors are expected to do that 
themselves. It's pretty rank out there right now. So I don't have 
much sympathy for whoever is fighting against the ALRC.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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