May I Have Your Permission, Please?

The next step in the permissions process is identifying the owner (the copyright holder) of the material. Your first thought might be to say that the author/creator is the owner, so what’s the big deal? But when it comes to copyright rules, nothing is necessarily  simple.

As I’d discussed earlier in “When Is An Author Not an Author,” there are definite times when the author is not legally considered the author. But even when the author does own the copyright, directly asking the author for permission to use material doesn’t always work. For example, well known authors use literary agents and the agents handle such mundane matters as contracts and permissions. In other cases, an author may own the copyright but has signed an agreement with the publisher that designates the publisher as the legal contact.

So what are you supposed to do?

Start with the sourcing information you already have. You’re so organized by now, I’ll bet you have the sourcing information on your spreadsheet already! Let’s begin with a basic example. This is all the information you have:

“Onstage Magic with Water” by Mel Gussow
The New York Times, 7/28/88, pp. E1, E3

You’re in luck. You have the three most important facts needed for tracking the copyright  holder: the article title, the article’s author, and where the article was found. Your first contact will be The New York Times. Enter “New York Times, The” on your spreadsheet for your first contact. (Be patient. I’ll soon be explaining how to make the contact. We’re only trying to figure out whom to contact for now.)

Another example:
“Age, Race, Sex and Class: Women Redefining Difference” (1978) by Audre Lord from Sister/Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984). You will have to do some simple research to find the copyright holder of this article. The copyright holder might be Lord, but whom should you contact? Start by finding out who wrote Sister/Outsider? Who published the book?

Amazon.com is an invaluable research tool. If you enter Sister/Outsider 1984 in Amazon’s search box, the first entry listed is the book you want.  Audre Lorde is the book’s author. Click on the book and scroll down the page. The publisher is Crossing Press. Rule of thumb says to contact the publisher first. Enter Crossing Press on your spreadsheet. That wasn’t so hard, was it? If only they were all so easy!

The next post will tackle a more challenging search for the copyright holder.

© 2009 Anne Wallingford. All Rights Reserved.

Every so often I look around the Web to find out what others have to say about copyright issues. These are some of the sites I have found helpful, interesting, or just plain thought-provoking.  If you have found other sites, please share them with us!

Krupin begins by sharing some of the questions he has received about copyright and permissions, then reviews copyright rules and how to handle infringements.
Direct Contact PR by Paul J. Krupin
“Copyright Infringement Can Be Fun and Profitable”
http://www.directcontactpr.com/free-articles/article.src?ID=82
“…the key thing to remember is to keep your cool when approaching  a copyright
infringer. Be careful. Be professional.”

–What copyright battles are currently being waged?

Convention Fans by dreadpiraterose
“The Bootleg Vendor Controversy”
http://conventionfans.today.com/2008/12/10/the-bootleg-vendor-controversy/
“The law is pretty clear on the whole bootlegging thing. If Company A owns the material, why should any other company be allowed to reproduce it, and then profit from it? However, can the case be made that it should be okay for shows or films that are not available on DVD or VHS, and/or do not have an American distributor?”

The Costumer by Tara
“LA Times Best of ‘08: Star Wars Costume Battle”
http://thecostumer.today.com/2008/12/26/la-times-best-of-08-star-wars-costume-battle/#comment-72
“…there are rights and permissions battles being fought every day regarding Star Wars.”

–There are also some strong, thought-provking arguments against copyright laws.

Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldin & David Levine
Book review on the Ludwig Van Mies Institute web site
http://www.mises.org/store/Against-Intellectual-Monopoly-P552.aspx
“Michele Boldrin and David Levine are asking us to rethink everything we believe about copyright and patent.”

Review Me Today by -Kat-
http://reviewme.today.com/2009/01/08/zen-habits/#comment-636
Zen Habit’s uncopyright policy

© 2009 Anne Wallingford. All Rights Reserved.

In my previous, rather lengthy post “Step Two: Off To Work We Go,” I explained how to set-up a working spreadsheet to track your permissions. This post will be a lot shorter! As the header to this post clearly says, permissions work is most definitely not paperless. Although many of the documents can be kept on the computer, more are on paper.

For the entire project, you will need:
* A hard copy of the author’s complete manuscript,
* If this is a new edition of a previously published text book, then you will need two copies of the previous edition.

Typical paper documents for each individual permissions request includes:
* A copy of the material for which permission is being sought, including all source information,
* A cover letter,
* A completed permissions request form,
* Ongoing correspondence and notes,
* Contracts,
* Invoices.

I’ve found the easiest way to keep track of all the paperwork is to label a manila folder with the name of the primary contact and put all the papers for this contact inside the folder. While the permissions request is still ongoing, I keep the request form and cover letter in front of the folder. Once the permission is obtained, I put the contract and invoice in front.

At this point, you may be wondering what some of these documents are. Don’t worry, I’ll be explaining these documents in future posts. For now, all you need to know is that you will need a box of manila folders, folder labels, and something to hold everything.

I’m very low maintenance in my own office-a box works well as a filing drawer. For a small project with perhaps forty permissions, a 12″ box does the job. But I’ve worked on some really large projects with over 200 permissions. Avon shipping cartons work well for those big projects! (My sister sells Avon and saves her empty boxes for me.) Of course, if you have room for a nice filing cabinet, or two, or want to purchase decorative file boxes, then you could always use those!

© 2009 Anne Wallingford. All Rights Reserved.