Poetry Copyright ownership rights

[Chris Hamming]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?Michigan

I have posted several poems on a website called POETRY.com. I would like to remove them now. The company stated that copyright is under my name. I have a problem with that. Every time I look at the page, the copyright on the botom is up-dated to 2005 (even if I wrote them in 2001). What should I do if they refuse to remove my own work from their site. Am I eligible for a case against them if they dont? Please help me out so I can take the proper measures. Thank you.

 

[divgradcurl]

What should I do if they refuse to remove my own work from their site. Am I eligible for a case against them if they dont?

Probably not. Unless you agreed to something otherwise, you retained the copyright in your work when you submitted it to the website, so you are free to republish your work elsewhere, sell it, or whatever.

However, the website owner ALSO has a copyright that covers his website, and you adding your work to his could be seen as adding a piece to a collaborative work that HE owns the copyright to -- so, while he may not be able to keep you from republishing your work elsewhere, you may not be able to make him remove the poetry from his site, because he owns the copyright on the collaborative work.

If he is unwilling to remove the materials, you could try and contact an attorney to write him a letter asking them to remove your work, but whether they are actually required to or not will depend on exactly what agreements you agreed to when you posted your work. If they said you could ask them to remove it whenever you wanted, you may have a case. If not, or if they don't say anything about later removal, then you probably don't.

 

[Chris Hamming]

Nothing I can do??

Michigan​

Hello,
So what your saying is what? That I really can't do anything about. I understand if they have a collaborative copyright, but what if I refuse to let them publish it in their book? Does that fall under that same thing? I'm really confused on this subject. Is there any way that I can copyright my own work so that I don't have to go through this again?

-Chris-

 

[divgradcurl]

So what your saying is what? That I really can't do anything about.

Probably not. You can ask, but they've already said "no" so I don't know how far that'll get you. You can see if they have some sort of agreement posted somewhere on the site that allows you to request that they remove your work, beyond that, probably not much you can do.

I understand if they have a collaborative copyright, but what if I refuse to let them publish it in their book?

Again, unless you have some sort of agreement to the contrary, like a contract or license or something, you probably can't. They already have a copyright for their "book" -- that's what a copyright on a collaborative work is. They would not, for example, have the right to republish your poetry as a stand-alone item without your permission, but they don't need your permission to publish the entire book which includes your poetry.

there any way that I can copyright my own work so that I don't have to go through this again?

Well, your work was automatically covered by copyright as soon as you wrote it down, but you can registered the copyright with the U.S. copyright office for more protections. However, even if you had registered the copyright prior to uploading the poem, unless you had some sort of agreement with the site stating that you reserved certain rights, you gave them the right to republish your poem as part of their collaborative work. Of course, you retain the rights to the poem yourself, so you can keep them from publishing your poem on its own, and you can always sell or otherwise publish your poem elsewhere, but you can't keep them from publishing their book.

In the future, if you want to total control over your work in all aspects, you need to discuss this with your publisher, whether it be a website or something else, and write up a contract that both of you can live with.