Creator Friendly Clause Language

(a) Freelancer hereby grants to Company the following rights in each Work [a drawing] throughout the world:

(i) The exclusive first right to publish the Work, which exclusivity lasts from the date hereof until ninety (90) days beyond the U.S. cover date of the issue of the Publication in which the Work is first published (and for cover-art drawings, one calendar year). In instances where a Work (or any part thereof) is first disseminated on a Company affiliated Web site or service prior to appearing in a print issue of a publication, Company's exclusivity period shall continue through the above-specified applicable time period after the on-sale date of the print issue of the publication. Freelancer will not allow anyone else to publish or use the Work or any portions thereof for any purpose until the applicable exclusivity period has expired.

(ii) Freelancer also grants Company, for the full term of copyright, the non-exclusive right to publish, print, republish, reprint and use the Works, the unrestricted right to use any cover containing the Works for any purpose at any time, the right to make and authorize the making of reprints or stand ¬alone copies of the article or feature including the Works for any purpose, the right to authorize the use of the Works as shown in the applicable publication as set dressing or otherwise in movies, television shows, and other productions, and in addition, the right to use the Works and/or Freelancer's name and likeness in publishing, promoting, advertising and publicizing the publication(s)and services in which the Works appear, and in merchandising.

(iii) Company will have the exclusive right to include each Work in a Company anthology, that is, in an anthology that contains material at least 25% of which originally appeared in [Publication], and which includes works by more than one contributor.

(iv) Company may allow any of Company's or its affiliates' owned or licensed publications outside of the United States, and/or foreign language publications in the United States (in each case "foreign publication") to acquire the exclusive first publication rights to each Work in that publication's country and/or language of publication, such exclusivity to last for ninety (90) days beyond the on-sale date of the issue of the foreign publication in which the applicable Work is published. The foreign publication may acquire the rights by giving notice thereof within one (I) month of the U.S. on-sale date and by agreeing to pay a fee to Freelancer upon publication as follows: [omitted]

(b) In addition to the rights granted above, for cover-art drawings accepted by Publication, Freelancer hereby grants to Company the following rights in each Work, for the full term of copyright, including any renewals and extensions throughout the world:

The exclusive right to use cover-art drawings to prepare covers of Publication. Freelancer acknowledges that any cover containing a Work is a derivative work in that it has recast, transformed, or adapted Freelancer's original Work and, as such, all rights, including copyright, in the cover shall be owned by Company outright. In any event, Freelancer grants Company the unrestricted right to use any cover containing a Work for any purpose at any time. Ownership of the copyright in the underlying work as well as ownership of the physical cover-art shall remain with Freelancer.

(c) Company may exercise the rights granted herein in any media now in existence or hereafter developed, throughout the world. In doing so Company may arrange with third parties for distribution, transmittal, publication, promotion or other dissemination of its publication(s) and service(s) or portions thereof containing the Work, or material from Company's publication(s) or service(s), in a collection, section, manner, or area identified as being associated with or containing material from Company or the applicable publication or service, including with any database operator or other service (e.g., Nexis), and may provide links and other enhancements to the Work.

This is a contract to publish a drawing in a major magazine. The rights granted cover the whole world and extend to all media now known or later developed.

(a)(i). The artist grants exclusive first publication rights; she may not republish or reuse the drawing until 90 days after the magazine (in print format) goes on sale. If the drawing is used as the cover, the artist must wait a year before republishing elsewhere.

(ii). After the period of exclusivity has passed, the magazine receives, for the full term of copyright, non exclusive rights to reuse the drawing for any purpose, and to authorize others to use the drawing for any purpose. Because the grant is non exclusive, the artist may also exercise the same rights; for example, the magazine may license the use of the drawing as part of the decor of a television show, and the artist may license the appearance of the drawing on a film set (or in another television show).

(iii) Although the grant as a whole is non-exclusive after 90 days, the Company receives exclusive rights to anthologize the drawing, but only if the anthology collects drawings of two or more artists, and at least 1/4 of the drawings contained in the anthology were first published by the Company.

(iv) Foreign rights: Company's foreign editions have an exclusive option to publish the drawing outside the US; they must exercise this option within a month of the publication of the US edition. If a foreign edition does publish the drawing, it enjoys 90 days of exclusivity from the date of publication.

(b) Special rules for drawings used as cover art: the author is not entitled to exploit the artwork as it appeared on the cover, incorporating the name of the publication and any other material added by the publisher. But the artist retains the copyright in the drawing as used separately from the cover, and also keeps the original artwork.

You may at all times use and distribute original printed copies or photocopied duplicates of the Article, or any portion thereof, as it appeared in the [journal], whether for personal, professional, or teaching purposes. You also have the right to reprint or republish the Article, or any portion thereof, in any book or article that you may write or contribute to, but if you do so, you must comply with the provisions of Paragraphs 3, 5, and 8 of this Agreement.

This is a contract for publication of an article in a scholarly journal (law review). Section 3 of the contract gave the publisher the exclusive right to publish the work for one year. Section 5 gave the publisher the right to upload a copy of the article onto legal databases. Paragraph 8 set out how the journal should be credited if the author subsequently publishes all or part of the article somewhere else. During the one year of the publisher's exclusivity, the contract nonetheless allows the author to make and distribute photocopies of the article (as published in the journal) to the author's students or for other professional and personal purposes. (The contract does not allow the author to distribute the article over digital media during the one year of the publisher's exclusivity.) After the one year, the author retrieves her exclusive rights to publish the work anywhere, in any format, but she must credit the original publisher, and the journal may license the inclusion of the article in legal databases.

Author grants to Publisher the exclusive rights to print, publish, distribute, sell and license the rights to any and all editions and/or formats of the Book, in whole or in part, in the English language throughout the world.

Author grants to Publisher the non-exclusive right to Electronic versions of the Book. (Electronic versions shall be defined as online and digital reproductions and displays of the verbatim text and illustrations of the Book, or excerpts, for promotional purposes only. This grant of rights shall in no event be deemed to be a grant of electronic-book or audio-recording rights, which are reserved by the Author.)

These rights shall be granted to the Publisher for a period of five (5) years from date of this agreement.

These clauses - taken from a negotiated literary contract - are among the author-friendliest we've encountered. Although the grant of English-language print rights is broad, it also is brief; the author recovers all rights after five years. Moreover, the contract explicitly reserves to the author the e-book and audio-book rights. In addition, because the contract covers only English language rights, the author retains foreign language rights.