Overreaching Clauses For Everyone

In consideration of his/her acceptance by the Publisher as a contributor (the “Contributing Author”) to the Work and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, the undersigned Contributing Author agrees as follows:

The undersigned Contributing Author grants to the Publisher the exclusive worldwide right to publish and sell the Article, in print format or in any other media, and all Articles contributed to subsequent editions, under its own name and under other imprints or trade names, during the full term of copyright and all renewals thereof. The undersigned Contributing Author assigns to the Publisher the worldwide copyright in the Article, for use by the Publisher in such manner and medium, including electronic media, as the Publisher wishes. In exercising this right the Publisher may (i) make translations, (ii) prepare other versions, or (iii) quote from and otherwise utilize the Article or material based on the Article, and the Publisher may grant permissions and licenses to third parties to do the same.

This is a contract for the publication of a contribution to a book of articles by several different authors.

The first paragraph of this excerpt means that the publisher will not pay the author for the rights the author grants.

The second paragraph means that the author gives up all her publishing rights -- print, digital, audio, and any other media -- for the whole world, for the full term of copyright. The publisher has the right to publish the work under its own name, but also under other imprints, and to allow others to publish: this can mean that the work, which the author expected would be published by the Publisher's prestige imprint, can end up being published by some less desirable imprint owned by the same Publisher, or even by someone else. Because the author assigns her full copyright to the publisher, she has no rights left in the work to sell to anyone else. The publisher may change the article, translate the article, make other versions of the article, and use any material from the article - all without getting the author's approval to any change, translation, version, etc.

The Author hereby grants and assigns exclusively to the Publisher all rights in the Work, including book publication rights and the right to fully develop the Work in all languages throughout the World for the full term of copyright (under current or subsequent copyright laws). Such rights shall include, but are not limited to the right to print, publish, license, distribute, and/or market, either directly or where applicable by third parties, any marketable right associated with the Work.

This is a contract for publication of an article in a newspaper or magazine. It gives the publisher all the author's rights in the work, including the right to turn the article into a book, all foreign languge rights, and any other conceivable way of making money from the article, anywhere in the world, for as long as the copyright lasts.

[1] The AUTHOR and [distributor] intend this to be a contract for services and each considers the products and results of the services to be rendered by the AUTHOR hereunder (the "Work") to be a work made for hire. The AUTHOR acknowledges and agrees that the Work (and all rights therein, including, without limitation, copyright) belongs to and shall be the sole and exclusive property of [distributor].

[2] If for any reason the Work would not be considered a work made for hire under applicable law, the AUTHOR does hereby sell, assign, and transfer to [distributor] its successors and assigns, the entire right, title and interest in and to the copyright in the Work and any registrations and copyright applications relating thereto and any renewals and extensions thereof, and in and to all works based upon, derived from, or incorporating the Work, . . . throughout the world.

This language is designed to grab all rights from a free-lance author or artist. The first clause purports to create a work for hire agreement, which would mean that the author has no rights left at all, ever (and cannot even get them back through the termination right). The second clause takes a belt-and-suspenders approach: if for any reason the work is not for hire -- which it would not be if the commissioned work did not fall within the statutory categories -- the author explicitly assigns all rights not only in this work, but in any work based on this work, for the full term of copyright, for the whole world.