Who Owns Your Work?

Copyright is a major issue with creators of anything. It's one that has a lot of simple, but incomplete answers. I by no means claim to have the answers. However, I do have one important question: who owns your work?

If you are self-published, the answer is simple: you do. You are the creator, publisher, and every other position of your own company. But every time you are working with someone other than your company, the answer is less simple.

Copyright can work in any number of ways, so if you are creating for somebody else, you should hammer out exactly how you want it. The short version is: either you own it forever, they own it forever, or they own it for some time and then you own it after that.

As a creator, the knee jerk reaction is usually, "I always want to retain the copyright to everything I own." That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be hasty depending on the situation. Suppose I write an article for my local newspaper about the parade down main street for memorial day this year. This is a throwaway piece. It has no replay value. You read it once, not even all the way through, and you will likely never read it again. I know that I'm never going to use it again. I may keep it for a portfolio, but it's never going to be republished. So if the newspaper tells me that any article they publish becomes their property, I don't care. I just want my check.

However, if I write a motivational, real-life story that Readers' Digest wants to publish, that may be a different matter. I may want to keep this story for later times. Maybe I will want to use it for a collection of essays in the future. If Readers' Digest wants to own the copyright to my work, they better make it worth my while.

As a writer, I don't trust the big companies for fear of them stealing my work and screwing me over. However, the companies sometimes want the copyright so that the writer doesn't get the same work published by competing companies. Both sides have the opportunity to screw over the other. That's why you always want to make sure you hammer out a complete and fair deal when it comes to copyright. A lawyer would be useful if you are in serious negotiations.

When you ask who owns your work, know that your name will always be on it (at least it better be). After that, the important question to ask yourself is if your work is something worth owning or if it's a throwaway piece. If it's a junker, though, don't treat it like junk. It's still something you put your effort into and created. Treat it as such.