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Who owns my columns?

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todd_cannon

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wyoming

I work for a newspaper as a graphic designer. On my own time and with my own equipment I wrote a series of columns that the newspaper published. I was not compensated for these columns. Now the newspaper claims the own them. Is that correct? I never signed anything.

I wrote a column that was published in the newspaper I work for in June 2010 while the editor was out of town. The column was run with her permission. Later, she suggested I do more of them, because if I had columns from three consecutive months, they could be submitted to the Wyoming Press Association yearly competition.

Since then, I have written one column per month. As nothing else was ever discussed, I assumed that all I had given them were first publication rights, and I retained the copyright.

I talked to the editor about it today, because there's talk of putting all past newspapers online, and I figured that this was more than first publication rights. That's when she told me the newspaper owns them. I said that I never would have given them to them if I had known they would own them totally.

She said I could be compensated now for all the previous columns, at $20 each. I said I'd rather have the ownership instead of compensation; she said she discuss it with the publisher.

I'm just curious how valid her claim of ownership may be.
 


justalayman

Senior Member
I see no reason to believe they own anything more than a license to publish your writings in print (first right to publish).

I believe you are correct as they now wish to enjoy some level of electronic rights. Since the paper was not currently published electronically, while it is possible they purchased those rights, it would generally not be assumed they had since the paper did not have the intent of electronically publishing their papers at the time of the submission.

Unless you intentionally sold them your copyrights, you continue to own them.

Concerning the ownership and subsequent transfer of copyrights:

§ 204. Execution of transfers of copyright ownership

(a) A transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner's duly authorized agent.

(b) A certificate of acknowledgment is not required for the validity of a transfer, but is prima facie evidence of the execution of the transfer if —

(1) in the case of a transfer executed in the United States, the certificate is issued by a person authorized to administer oaths within the United States; or

(2) in the case of a transfer executed in a foreign country, the certificate is issued by a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States, or by a person authorized to administer oaths whose authority is proved by a certificate of such an officer.
Since you signed nothing, I see no reason to believe you transferred your rights UNLESS somewhere in your paperwork you had signed a transfer of all copyrights of works created while employed at the paper that were submitted to the paper for publication.
 

todd_cannon

Junior Member
Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. You confirmed what I've been thinking (and hoping!)

Apparently, there are now intellectual property lawyers in Wyoming, so I'm really hoping the publisher is reasonable about this.
 

todd_cannon

Junior Member
Sorry, that should have been "no intellectual property lawyers" not "now".

Wyoming is very big with very sparse population; according to wikipedia, we're 50th.
 

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