Overreaching Clauses for Journalists

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.

Except as may be set forth in an applicable Schedule, Publication shall own and retain all right, title and interest in and to all Work and all other reports, documents, materials, ideas, concepts, know-how, specifications, plans, notes, drawings, designs, pictures, images, text, audiovisual works, data, information and other items, expressions, works of authorship or work product of any kind that are authored, produced, created, conceived, collected, developed, discovered or made by Author in connection with the Work or which relate in any manner to the Work or which result from any Work produced by Author for Publication, including any and all intellectual property rights therein (collectively the Work Product). To the extent applicable, Publication shall be deemed to be the author of all Work Product, and all such Work Product will constitute "works made for hire" under the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.  101 et seq.), and any other applicable copyright law. To the extent that any Work Product does not constitute a work made for hire, Author hereby assigns to Publication all right, title and interest that Author may have or may hereafter acquire in all Work Product, including all intellectual property rights therein.

This contract is between an author and a travel magazine. It states that all work product of the author (including research materials) are the product of the publication and solely the publication owns all rights in them. It also states that the work is a work-for-hire.