Bulletin Board
Writers, Check Your Contracts
02 September 2008
Filed under: International Industry News
In Greenberg v. National Geographic Society, No 05-16964, decided June 30, 2008, the US 11th Circuit, sitting en banc, held that a paper magazine publisher had the privilege of republishing its content, including the photographs at issue, in the form of a CD-ROM, even where the new media was a compilation of all issues published since the magazine's inception coupled with newly-embedded computer programs for accessing and indexing the individual contributions of the original authors of the text and photographs, per The Intellectual Property Law Blog.
If this is right, magazine publishers can take one or several issues and publish them in new media - as long as the publisher reproduces the material in its original lay-out.
So, writers, photographers and illustrators, if you would like to get paid for additional use of your material, make sure it is written into your contract.
[Source: NZSA News