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Archive-name: organizations/union/natl-writers/part3
Posting-frequency: monthly Last-modified: 2004 Oct 31 Version: 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & CHARTER National Writers Union Usenet newsgroup: alt.union.natl-writers Maintained by: nwufaq@vicric.com (Vicki Richman) URL: http://vicric.com/ NWU staff: nwu@nwu.org NWU URL: http://www.nwu.org/ PART THREE Quick Hints: This FAQ is divided into four parts. You are reading Part Three. The complete contents are in the first part. This part has only its own contents. The Charter to alt.union.natl-writers is in Part Four. Go to Part Four first for guidelines on posting and advice from Emily Postliterate. Please read the Charter before you post. For an NWU membership application, go to http://www.nwu.org/ or read on Note the Last-Modified date above. If this version is more than 45 days old, it is obsolete and should be discarded. NWU-FAQ v. 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet Copyright 2000 Vicki Richman. All rights reserved. ****************************************************************** ** ** ** Permission is hereby granted to copy, reprint and dis- ** ** tribute this document without payment or recompense, for ** ** noncommercial purposes only. But permission is so granted ** ** only for copying the entire text, without changes, dele- ** ** tions, editing or cutting. Permission must be sought and ** ** received for any commercial use of this text. Any copy ** ** must retain the copyright line and this permission notice. ** ** ** ****************************************************************** PART THREE o Section 3: Electronic Writing 3.0. What are you doing online? 3.1. I've HTML-ized my work for my Web site, but my publisher claims all rights to it and won't let me post it. 3.2. What are electronic rights? 3.3. I write code. Why should I join a union that puts me in the same campaign as an advertising copywriter? o Section 4: Membership 4.0. So, how can I join? Section 3: Electronic Writing ------------------------------- 3.0. What are you doing online? ------------------------------- The 1998 Delegates Assembly voted not to actively attempt to organize "computer programmers" into the National Writers Union, unless they meet some other membership criterion. Presumambly, "computer programmers" means code writers and perhaps Web designers. The motion was sponsored by the former and present chairs of the New York local, who preferred that Union organizing funds be spent only on authors and writers in traditional human languages. Writers need an unfettered Internet as much as professors, students and other professionals do. The electronic media are both tools and products to us. Some of us are on the printed page. Some of us are on multimedia disks or on the Web. Some of us use words. Some of us write code. We all need to protect the way we earn a living. The NWU suite of online services adds to the protection the union has provided since 1981, and it helps to organize the unorganized -- electronic writers, code-writers, online-forum moderators, multimedia artists, Web authors and designers -- into our union of all creative workers using the quill, pen or keyboard. ------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1. I've HTML-ized my work for my Web site, but my publisher claims all rights to it and won't let me post it. ------------------------------------------------------------- The copyright -- or all-rights -- grab has indeed become a major beef for writers. Copyright law assigns a copyright to the human author by default. The author need do nothing to keep the copyright -- the author has to do something to lose the copyright. To earn a living, the author typically sells -- or *leases*, to be more precise -- certain rights to a publisher. The various rights are defined by contract, not by law, but the rights all derive from copyright law. That is, only the copyright owner may sell or lease -- or simply define -- subsidiary rights to the copyrighted work. Typically, a magazine writer sells "first serial rights" to the publisher. That means that the magazine has the exclusive right to publish the piece for the first time. After publication, the writer may sell other rights to other publishers -- or just post the piece on the Web. Selling first serial rights worked well in the industry until the computer and modem were invented. First, electronic databases -- Lexis/Nexis, for example -- sold magazine articles online. Both writers and publishers squawked. Then the publishers realized that they could do it themselves -- put their print articles into their own databases or even into electronic magazines on propietary services or on the Web. Okay, that solved the publishers' problem, but, contrary to their claims, a publisher is not necessarily the copyright owner. The author, who is the default copyright owner, was still not getting reimbursed. In fact, the author was not even consulted, but typically found out about the electronic infringement by chance. The publishers fixed the electronic rip-off by running their own chop shops, selling our intellectual property like used automobile parts. Finally speaking for themselves, writers replied that they had sold only first serial rights. Only the writer, we said, may use the article after it has been published. Publishers answered that electronic distribution is merely an extension of the print publication. It is not a new use for the work, they argued. First serial rights excludes only publishing the article in another print magazine, they claimed, but does not exclude an electronic version of the original print magazine. Whether that argument will stand up in court remains to be seen. But, wisely fearing that their argument would be held specious by the courts, publishers began covering their asses by offering new contracts to writers. Those contracts changed "first serial rights" to "all rights, including electronic rights or rights in any medium not yet invented." Even worse, some publishers -- like the _New York Times_ -- made freelance writers sign work-for-hire contracts. That means that the author surrenders copyright ownership to the publisher. The owner does not merely sell all rights; the author gives away ownership of the copyright entirely. Work-for-hire contracts are particularly distasteful. They use a loophole in the law. The work-for-hire sections of copyright law were meant for salaried employees or for writers under contract to produce technical manuals or catalogs. Work-for-hire was never intended to include journalists, essayists, and other creative freelancers. So the suggestion that work-for-hire or all-rights contracts are "common" misses the point. They may be common this year, but they are exceptional in the history of publishing. What can writers do? We can refuse to sign such contracts. The National Writers Union has its own model contracts for use by its members. We can insist on using an NWU contract instead of the one our publishers offer. If enough writers hold out, the publishers may agree to make NWU contracts standard industry practice. We can also ask for additional payment for any right beyond first serial rights. If a contract pays $1000 for work-for-hire, the writer may reply, "A grand is my fee for first serial rights. I'll take another $150 for electronic rights. Work-for-hire will cost you five grand." The writer probably won't get more money for the piece, but the publisher, who is really only interested in getting the magazine on the stands, may agree to buy only first serial rights. That is, the writer will retain all other rights for the same fee. (The figures cited are for anecdotal illustration only. No union scale or standard rate is implied or should be inferred. See Question 2.1.1 for a discussion of union scale.) -------------------------------- 3.2. What are electronic rights? -------------------------------- The NWU has released a position paper on E-rights. Its principal author is Phil Mattera, a national vice-president. Visit: http://www.nwu.org/ Or E-mail: nwu@nwu.org ------------------------------------------------------------ 3.3. I write code. Why should I join a union that puts me in the same campaign as an advertising copywriter? ------------------------------------------------------------ Our democratic structure allows any member to work toward organizing new and different campaigns. (See Question 2.2.1, on our three campaigns.) That's why. For now, we have found that business, instructional and technical writers have too much in common with digital artists to be in separate campaigns. Whether print or digital, most commercial writers work under contract as quasi-employees. Many print writers are trying to expand into electronic writing. Many already do both. If enough exclusively electronic writers join the union, they may split from the Business, Instructional, Technical, Electronic Writing Campaign (BITE) into their own campaign. In addition to BITE, we have two largely print campaigns -- Book and Journalism. The new millenium may see a largely digital campaign, as younger writers join the union. Section 4: Membership ------------------------ 4.0. So, how can I join? ------------------------ Membership in the NWU is open to all qualified writers, and no one shall be barred or prejudiced within the union on account of age, disability, gender, ideology, literary genre, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation. You are eligible for membership if you have published a book, a play, three articles, three short stories or five poems. You are also eligible for membership if you have gained professional assignments for an equal amount of newsletter, public-relations, technical, commercial, government or institution copy, or for an equal amount of electronic code-writing, multimedia or Web work or online or BBS copy. You are also eligible for membership if you have written an equal amount of unpublished material and are actively writing and attempting to publish your work. To get an application, email to: nwu@nwu.org or visit: http//:www.nwu.org/ Voice, fax, and snail-mail data are at the end of Part Four. Here are some data requested by the application: GENRES: Journalism, fiction, nonfiction, academic, juvenile, Web design, business, technical, literary/small press, institutional/nonprofit, labor public relations, poetry, code-writing. FORMATS: Books, magazines, newspapers, miscellaneous copy, multimedia, CD ROM, software. Please list all publishers, publications, firms, and institutions for which you have worked as a writer in the past three years. This information will be for internal use only. In which local to belong? Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles; Michigan, Southeastern; Minneapolis/St. Paul; New England, Western; New Jersey; New York City Metropolitan Area; Oregon; Philadelphia; San Diego (At-Large sublocal); San Francisco Bay Area; Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay; Seattle; Tucson (At-Large sublocal); Vermont; Washington DC; Westchester/Fairfield (in Connecticut and New York states); At Large. Please check those areas in which you can contribute to building the union: Book Campaign, Journalism Campaign, New Technologies Committee, Business Instructional Technical Electronic Writing Campaign (BITE), Political Issues Committee, African-American Caucus, Asian-American Caucus, Latina/Latino Caucus, Native American Caucus, Queer Caucus, Women's Caucus. You are asked, but may opt out of citing: your gender; your birthdate; your ethnicity or race; your sexual orientation. The NWU directory lists members, their genres, and a short statement. The directory is distributed to publishers and employers. Do you wish your name, address, and phone number to be listed? --------END PART 3/4--------CONTINUED IN PART 4-------- User Contributions: |
Natl Writers Union FAQ, Part 3/4: E-Rights & Membership
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Natl Writers Union FAQ, Part 3/4: E-Rights & Membership
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