Could Be Worse Clause About Duration of Grant

You grant to the [publisher] the exclusive right to publish the Article for a period of one year from the date when the Issue is first mailed to subscribers. During this period, you shall not publish the Article, or any portion thereof, in any other law review, scholarly publication, or otherwise, nor shall you authorize any other party to do so, without the written consent of the [publisher].

This is a contract for publication of an article in a scholarly journal (law review). It grants the publisher the exclusive right to publish the work for one year from the date the issue containing the work is first mailed to subscribers. During that year, the author cannot publish the piece anywhere -- including, it seems, on her own website or on a scholarly pre-print server -- without the consent of the publisher. But after one year, all rights revert to the author.

[The fee] buys first-time rights to a story. The story may be used in [magazine A], or any editions of the magazines owned by [publisher], which include [magazine B] in [magazine C],in [magazine D], in [magazine D] and [magazine E]. The story may be published on the web sites of any publication for up to one year after initial publication. It will be stored in the web sites archives, unless other arrangements are made specifically with the editor.

This is a contract for publication of a story in a general-circulation magazine. The scope of "first-time rights" is unclear. It would cover first publication in one of the publisher's magazines, but it might also cover initial or subsequent publication in more than one of the publisher's magazines. It does not appear that the publisher is committing to publish the story in a particular magazine. If the magazines enjoy different levels of prestige, there is no guarantee that the story will appear in the high prestige publication rather than a lower prestige one. The author retains all other rights, including publication in or adaptation for other media .

The last clause is a grant back clause which gives the author rights that have been previously taken away. In this case, it allows the author to regain all rights in the work but this grant back is non-exclusive meaning the publisher retains the right to publish the work, including online.

Pursuant to this Agreement, Contractor grants The [publisher] in our circulation area first publication rights to the Material, and grants The [publisher] an irrevocable, paid up, worldwide, transferable, license in perpetuity to copy, distribute, display, publicly perform, and create derivative works of the Material, including a license to redistribute, reproduce, republish, and to authorize republication, reproduction and syndication of all or part of the Material in print, in any microform media, in any database, or in any other media (computer, electronic, optical, video, CD-ROM, or otherwise) or form, now known or hereafter invented. This license shall be exclusive for ninety (90) days from the date of first publication of the Material by The [publisher]; thereafter this license shall be non-exclusive, unless mutually agreed otherwise in writing.

This is a contract for a nationally-known newspaper. This clause gives the publisher the right to publish the work in any format, anywhere in the world, forever - including the right to edit the work and create derivative works. It also entitles the publisher to give any and all of those rights to anyone else. For 90 days following first publication, the publisher enjoys these rights exclusively. After 90 days, the rights become non exclusive, which means that the author can exercise the same rights, too. Both the author and the publisher can exploit the work without getting the other's approval (or paying for it).

You retain ownership to the Video Content You submit for inclusion into the Yahoo! Video Service. However, by submitting Your Video Content to Yahoo!, You hereby grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable and transferable rights and licenses:

a. to host, cache, store, archive, index, crawl, create algorithms based thereon, modify or transcode the Video Content to appropriate media formats, standards or mediums as part of the Yahoo! Video Service;

b. to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, remix, excerpt, adapt, prepare derivative works of, publicly perform and publicly display the Video Content on the Yahoo! Video Service or on any Yahoo! property, including in connection with any distribution or syndication arrangement thereof with third parties or third party sites, in any media format or medium and through any media channels; and

c. to use Your Video Content for advertising, promotional or commercial purposes, including without limitation, the right to publicly display, perform, reproduce and distribute Your Video Content in any media format or medium and through any media channels.

By submitting Your Video Content for inclusion into the Yahoo! Video Service, you also grant the following use of and rights to Your Video Content to others: (i) the non-exclusive license to access Your Video Content through the Yahoo! Video Service; (ii) the ability for Yahoo! registered users ('Yahoo! Users') to rate, review, comment on and tag Your Video Content; (iii) the ability to embed Yahoo!'s video player with Your Video Content on their web site; (iv) the ability for Yahoo! Users to send and distribute Your Video Content via E-mail or Instant Messenger; (v) the ability to access Your Video Content via Yahoo!'s web service APIs or via RSS or any similar XML or related feeds; and (vi) the non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, distribute, remix, prepare derivative works of and compilations, display and perform Your Video Content as permitted through the functionality of the Yahoo! Video Service and under these Additional Terms and the TOS.

The foregoing licenses granted by You shall terminate once You remove or delete Your Video Content from the Yahoo! Video Service.

This is the Terms of Service Agreement from Yahoo! Video Service which allows users to upload user-generated content to the Yahoo! site. Much like in the agreement for Flickr (also owned by Yahoo! and posted on this site as well), the user retains copyrights in the work and allows Yahoo! a free right to use it - and transfer it or license it to others - for the duration that the material is posted on the site.

(3) Content Ownership

You retain the copyright to the content you submit to [Publisher].

You agree to grant to [Publisher] the following perpetual, royalty-free, fully paid-up rights for all of your articles written for [Publisher]:

Exclusive worldwide rights to (1) publish, distribute and publicly display your articles online, at xxx.com or other third-party websites and publications with whom [Publisher] enters into a content distribution arrangement; (2) excerpt your articles online at xxx.com or in our newsletter, for any purpose; (3) include your articles in our online archive or database for the period of 6 months from the original publication date of your article.

After the exclusive period, non-exclusive fully paid-up worldwide rights to (1) publish, distribute and publicly display your articles online, at xxx.com or other third-party websites and publications with [Publisher] enters into a content distribution arrangement; (2) excerpt your articles online at xxx.com or in our newsletter, for any purpose; (3) include your articles in our online archive or database.

This is a contract for the publication of an article on a website. It grants the publisher the exclusive right to publish, distribute, publicly display, excerpt, and archive the article. Clause 3 specifies an exclusive period of six months following first publication in regard to archiving the article. One can assume that the publication intended the 6 month exclusive period to apply to clauses 1 and 2, but the phrasing is poorly worded and unclear. After the exclusive period is over, the publisher retains non-exclusive rights, meaning that the author can exercise those rights as well.

WRITER'S AGREEMENT

3. Kill fee. If an article you have been assigned is ultimately not accepted for publication, you will be paid a "kill fee" of 25 percent (25%) of the Basic Fee.

7. Grant of License. (a) In exchange for payment, you grant [Publication] a perpetual, worldwide license to reproduce, modify, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display the article (i) on the xxx.com website located at www.xxx.com (or any other Web site owned, controlled, syndicated, published co-published by [Publication]) ("Site"), (ii) [Publication] presentations regarding the Site and (iii) in written and electronic supplemental material designed to promote or market the Site. Included in the display rights outlined above is the right to electronically archive the article for retrieval by users of the [Publication] Site in perpetuity. The rights in each article are exclusive for three (3) years after the first display of each such article on the Site ("Period of Exclusivity"). Exclusive means without limitation that you agree not to offer the article to any third party to reproduce, modify, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display in any form or format, unless otherwise negotiated.

(b) Author's Re-use. After the period of exclusivity, you have the right to re-sell the article to any market or medium, including without limitation, television, film, video, print (including, without limitation, books) and audio, alone or as part of a larger work; provided, however that you shall request proper credit, such as "This article first appeared in {Publication], a Web site located at http://www.xxx.com."

8. Re-use. You grant [Publication] the perpetual non-exclusive right to license or syndicate the use or adaptation of your article(s) to any other medium or market, now existing or hereafter developed. Should [Publication] receive a fee for such license, you will receive 25 percent (25%) of the applicable pro rata net proceeds from said fee. (Newspaper syndication is excluded -- you will not receive an additional fee for such reuse.)

This is a contract between an on-line publication and freelance contributors. It contains a kill fee provision stating that the author will receive 25% of the basic fee for any assigned articles which are ultimately not published. It also grants the publisher exclusive rights in the article, including the right to modify the article, for three years following first display on the site. However, the publisher only has the right to use the article on its website, on other sites that it is affiliated with, or in presentations or supplemental materials regarding its website. After the three year exclusive period, the author regains his rights, although the author must still provide credit to the publication. Additionally, the publication retains non-exclusive rights to license or syndicate the article to another market, provided that the author receives 25% of the proceeds.