In an interesting development on creator rights in the internet age, movie studio Warner Bros has found that they not have exclusive movie rights to new author James Erwin's sci fi story "Rome, Sweet Rome" because he first published it on the social networking site Reddit.com. The site's user agreement lays first claim to the rights of works published there, something that other sites like Twitter do as well. With many new authors eager to get their work out where others can see it and provide feedback, they might find themselves running into problems like this more and more. All authors should pay close attention to the fine print when posting their works or contact the site if they have any questions or want further information on their policies.
Following is an excerpt of the Reddit user agreement and you can read more about this story over at The Hollywood Reporter.
you agree that by posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter developed) and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment