Re: campus literary journal (Roegge, Kathleen)

[Bill Westwood <westwood@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mr. Dufresne's advice is an intelligent, businesslike approach to this
issue.  I can say this as a professional medical illustrator who has been
involved with copyright since 1976 and an adjunct instructor teaching
business practices and copyright to graphic arts students at a local
college.  

One point that was not clearly stated however is that the copyright to the
submissions belongs to the authors, unless there is a written document
transferring it to the publication.  Copyright ownership can only be
transferred in writing.

Sincerely,

Bill Westwood


-- 
William B. Westwood, M.S.
Board Certified Medical Illustrator
Westwood Medical Communications
915 Broadway
Albany, NY  12207

p(518) 432-5237
f(518) 432-7106

Take a minute and visit my website at http://westwoodmedical.com and
remember.......
For Great Medical Art, There's WESTWOOD and There's The Rest






on 9/8/06 9:18 AM, Walter Dufresne at wdufresne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> In my experience, Mr. Jerving's advice is pretty darn good.  And Ms.
> Awuku-Agyeman's advice may very well be accurate, offered as it is in
> the roll of a non-attorney from across the world wide web.
> 
> An intellectual property attorney is, I'd guess, the only person
> capable of offering an advisory opinion about who owns the copyright
> to those journal submissions.  Knowing nothing about those informal
> agreements, and very little about Title 17, I'm incompetent here.  If
> a college doesn't retain the services of an attorney specifically
> versed in i. p., well, that's more than a bit retrograde at the
> beginning of the third millennium.
> 
> On a closely-related matter where I have some competence, this is one
> academic and editor who distinguishes between his research and
> creative work and his career, who values his work as much as he
> values his academic career:  asking/demanding an assignment of *my*
> copyright in *my* work is more than a bit Draconian, it's kidnapping
> my children.  The very use of the word "assignment" raises my hackles.
> 
> Here's what I've done as an editor, working the other side of the
> aisle from my contributors.  In my experience, it's easier to do -
> easier to get - than asking for an assignment of copyright.  Consider
> e-mailing your journal's authors, en masse, and asking for a license
> for what you really, truly desire.  In your case, it sounds like:
> 
> 01.  web publishing in .pdf and .html formats on the college's own
> site for xx years
> 
> *and*
> 
> 02.  re-prints of whole stories/poems/essays, or of excerpts, as
> stand-alone reprints or as a part of any compilations, including
> catalogs and reprints of the college's own journals for xx years
> 
> Your intellectual property attorney might even advise you to have
> some kind of "consideration" change hands, something a tiny bit more
> substantive than "we'll credit your name next to your work."  This
> "consideration" would be a form of payment for this licensing.  An
> invitation to autumn's homecoming dinner, or a trivial amount of
> cash, or a mailed coupon for one of the college-branded coffee cups
> from the campus bookstore, any might suffice.
> 
> I'm optimistic.  There are ways to do this that are easy, simple, and
> respectful of the work of researchers and creators.
> 
> Sincerely,
> ==============================================
> Walter Dufresne, adjunct assistant professor
> Advertising Design and Graphic Arts Department
> New York City College of Technology / CUNY
> 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY  11201-2983
> ==============================================
> 31 Montgomery Place, Brooklyn, NY  11215-2342
> tel:  +1.718.622.1901  fax:  +1.718.789.1452
> e-mail:  wdufresne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ==============================================