A couple of AOL-journalers have mentioned that they have turned down offers for their journals to be featured as weekly Editor's Picks due to copyright issues.
Truthfully, I hadn't given copyright much thought. Usually when you sell a piece to a publication, it purchases what are known as "First North American Serial Rights," which means it has the right to publish the piece for the first time, and for one time, after which the copyright reverts to you and you can try to re-sell it as a reprint.
Notice that I used the word "sell." When we write journal entries which appear online, we aren't selling anything at all to AOL. In fact, we can delete every word we've written and every photo we've added whenever we want.
So who owns the rights to what?
Tonight I decided to delve a little further, and I read the Terms of Use that appear on the journal homepage I can report that its language is unclear, to say the least. It essentially states that AOL owns the rights to everything that appears on its site (What rights? ALL rights?), but then goes on to advise us to contact AOL if we believe that our work has been copied and our copyright infringed.
The only thing that seems clear is that the Terms of Use were not written with journalers in mind.
I'm going to ask John Scalzi to take a look at this entry and seek some clarity for us. I can't imagine that most of us believe that by adding an entry to an online journal we are losing the rights to our written or photographic work -- if that is the case, I think that AOL Journals might dry up rather quickly. However, I do believe that AOL needs to add a crystal clear clarification regarding copyright to any pages to which a journaler might turn for information or assistance.
It would seem to me that, at the most, given that we receive no compensation for our work, we might be donating nonexclusive rights to our work to aol and otherewise retaining all other rights, including the right to sell, publish, reprint. etc. our work whenever, however, and to whomsoever we chose.
In the meantime, I was out in the woods this past week-end, where it was awfully nice to see flowers in bloom that weren't planted by human hands:
Indian Paintbrush
11 comments:
Beautiful picture
Jackie
That is a beautiful flower. I have never seen one of those before.
That flower is beautiful. I don't think I've ever looked at one that closely. I thought the "petals" would be totally orange not green in the middle.
Hmmmm.... interesting. Let us know what you find out. Pamela
That's no only ineesting it is worrisome. I'll be anxious to read what you found out. Thanks for the information. Aren't 'red' flowers wonderful for the eyes. Pennie
Thank you for looking into the matter and bringing it to our attention. Very important, indeed. Who is John Scalzi? --Beth
The copyright issue is murky...and I know I don't worry about it as much as I probably should. I agree with you...if AOL somehow feels that THEY own anything I post...then my entries will become a lot less visual. It would be a shame.
Keep us updated on what you learn.
Lovely photo. I've never seen this wildflower before.
Love indian paintbrush!
The legalese is fairly standard for ISPs and content providers. You keep rights to your work, but AOL can/could/might use your content as part of it's content. A quote from a message board post. A photo on a community page ect, ect, ect.
If you turn the legalese around, by you surrendering the rights in the TOS, AOL can't be held responsible if you place something online that you don't have rights to use.
I don't worry about it.
I'm appreciative of you bring this up. This is a very interesting and timely topic as I, too, have heard of AOL-journalers declining offers to be featured. Yes, the wordage is unclear and the entire "ownership rights" issue is one I've wrangled with but, frankly, don't know where to go with my questions. I can understand both sides of this issue, but the TOS really needs to be clarified and I'm confident John Scalzi is able, and willing, to do this. [Beautiful photo!]
Appreciatively,
Judith
http://journals.aol.com/jtuwliens/MirrorMirrorontheWall
Very interesting...and am wondering what John will dig up for us. It's certainly a good question.
I've always loved Indian Paintbrush! ~Lori
I've been so content to have a place to put my stuff where other people besides myself and my family can see it, I have given no thought at all to copyright issues. I'm not a HUGE fan of AOL, but I don't think they are in the business of stealing our work and then capitalizing on it. I might even take it as a sort of back-handed compliment if they did... Lisa :-]
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