Could Be Worse Clauses for Journalists

1. (a) You acknowledge that the Article has been commissioned by [Publisher] as a contribution to a collective work and that [Publisher]'s interest therein arises as a "work-for-hire" under the Copyright Act. [Publisher] hereby assigns to you a joint copyright interest in and to the Article such that the worldwide copyright in all Articles created pursuant to this agreement shall be deemed joint works owned by [Publisher] and by you. In the event the Article is deemed not to be a "work-for-hire", you hereby assign to [Publisher] a joint copyright interest in and to the Article to effect joint copyright ownership. [can also include in examples of a work for hire language; in commentary on this contract, need to explain that work for hire status means no statutory termination rights for the author]
   
   (b) Subject to the limitations set forth in paragraph 2(c) below, as joint copyright owners of the Article, [Publisher] and you shall each have the irrevocable, non-exclusive right to exercise any and all rights granted by the United States Copyright Act, including but not limited to, the right to reproduce, display, distribute, sell, translate and transmit the Article throughout the world, in any media now known or later developed, to sublicense the foregoing rights and to create derivative works, provided that neither you nor [Publisher] shall have the right to grant rights in the Article that would purport to restrict the rights of the other party under this agreement.
   
   (c) With respect to film, television, stage and book rights in and to the Article, you may exercise your rights on an exclusive basis and beginning immediately upon publication of the Article, except that with respect to non-fiction film and television rights, you agree that [Publisher] shall have an exclusive negotiation period for these rights until seven (7) days after [Publisher] first publishes the Article. During the exclusive negotiation period, you may not offer non-fiction film and television rights to the Article to a third party without the prior approval of [Publisher]. Nothing herein shall preclude [Publisher] from including the Articles in a book in any form or media, provided that such book shall not consist exclusively or substantially of the Articles. Except for the foregoing, you agree that you will not exercise any of your rights under paragraph 2(b) until thirty (30) days after [Publisher] first publishes an Article. (For example, but without limitation, you may not sell the Article to another publication during this thirty (30) day time period.) Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may post the Article on a personal Web site seven (7) days after [Publisher] first publishes an Article.
   
   (d) Notwithstanding that [Publisher] and you own a joint copyright in the Article, neither party shall have any obligation to share revenues generated from its exercise of the foregoing rights, except that [Publisher] will pay you fifty percent (50%) of the net receipts (that is, receipts after deduction of syndication expenses) from the syndication of the Article ("Syndication Fee"). Where the Article is syndicated for use in an advertisement or promotion, there will be a fixed Syndication Fee, set in accordance with the internal conflict of interest standards of [Publisher]. The Article is "syndicated" when it is sold individually, and not as part of the Magazine or other works published in the Magazine, to a third party, for republication in any form. The inclusion of the Article in an international edition of the Magazine (either in English or translated into another language) is not a "syndication" for which compensation would be owed under this paragraph.

This is a major newspaper's form contract for freelance journalists. It is a "work for hire" agreement. This means that the publisher acquires all the rights (though the contract also gives many rights back to the author), and the author has no termination rights under the Copyright Act.

• (a) Although the article is a "work for hire," all copyrights are to be jointly owned by the author and the publisher.

• (b) Both the author and the publisher have a non-exclusive right to distribute the work, alter the work, copy the work or otherwise utilize the work in any media (now known or later created), throughout the world forever. But the author may not exercise her rights until 30 days after pubilcation. (Although she may post the work to her website seven days after publication.)

• (c) Film, TV, stage and book rights: the contract grants vack to the author the exclusive right to exploit the work in these media once the article has been published. For the first seven days following publication, however, the publisher has the exclusive right to negotiate the rights to a non-fiction film or television show. The publisher also retains the right to publish the article in a book (in any media), but the book may not consist solely of articles by the author.

• (d) Although the author and the publisher share the copyright, they do not share revenues from any exploitation each makes. There is an exception for syndication of the article in other newspapers: the publisher will pay author 50% of the net receipts.

If the [publisher] is approached by another publisher (the "[other] Publisher") seeking permission to publish the Article in any form other than those authorized by Paragraphs 5 [in an on-line database] and 6 [as a reprint or part of the journal] above, the [publisher] shall have the non-exclusive right to grant such permission to the [other]Publisher, provided that such permission shall require the [other] Publisher to print the [notice] required by paragraph 8 below.

This means that the publisher can, without consulting the author, allow another publisher to publish the article in any format as long as the second publisher prints the correct notice indicating that the article was originally published in the journal.

[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).