Property of Pics and Documents?

O.K., I have a question for you guys. Hypothetically, let's say I had a unique document or that i personally took a photo that would be of interest to ATSers. If I post them to the ATS site, does the document/photo become the legal property of ATS? Can anyone and their mother use it for their own purposes? I am not familiar regarding this field of law. I've heard the term "fair use" thrown around here but don't know what it means.....may have no bearing on my question either. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Read the Creative Commons Deed on every post (CC icon lower right corner) for how others can use our content. YOU still own your photograph.

When you post it on ATS you are giving us (ATS,LLP) shared Non-Excusive Rights to use it however we want as well. That's ONLY ATS and YOU that get to use it however we want, everyone else must abide by the CC Deed.

Springer...

[edit on 3-3-2006 by Springer]

So, say I wanted to write a book called "I am Icarus Rising", or something like that, made up exclusively of my posts to this site, would I need ATS's permission to publish it? And if so, would I be able to get that permission? Would you want a cut of the proceeds, if there ever were any? Would you be willing to assist in the effort in exchange?

Wow, that's like four questions in a row, but I am very curious about this, and I have considered it as an effort to avoid bankruptcy and homelessness.

If these questions are not appropriate for an open forum, maybe you would consider a U2U in response.

Thanks.

From what I understand about this, I could be wrong but you could use your material anyway you want, so can ATS.

Originally posted by Icarus Rising
So, say I wanted to write a book called "I am Icarus Rising", or something like that, made up exclusively of my posts to this site, would I need ATS's permission to publish it? And if so, would I be able to get that permission? Would you want a cut of the proceeds, if there ever were any? Would you be willing to assist in the effort in exchange?

Wow, that's like four questions in a row, but I am very curious about this, and I have considered it as an effort to avoid bankruptcy and homelessness.

If these questions are not appropriate for an open forum, maybe you would consider a U2U in response.

Thanks.

Here's the way I understand it, and I've done a little writing if that helps.
When you write something it becomes your intellectual property at that moment.

If you knocked out a book and serialized it on ATS, it's still your intellectual property.
Others may copy it off the site and how are you going to stop them?
But . . . they can't publish it and claim it as their own.

Copyrights come into play when you get into publishing the book.
Library of Congress, ISBN numbers etc.

Fair play use is - as I understand it - a critic/reviewer or another author may quote small parts of the book to illustrate a point, but they do have to give the author credit.

Using titles only in your manuscript isn't a problem.
in fact, you could title your book, "The Old Man and The Sea" and be within your legal rights although you'd be looked down upon by the publishing community and probably by the general citizenry and I'd stay away from Hemingway's old haunts where the afficionado's hang out.


Somewhere along the line, the courts realized how easy it is/was to end up with the same title someone used long ago or even recently.
Perhaps the decision would have gone differently if Google and the like had been available.

Just for fun I Googled, "I am Icarus Rising" and found no hits in the first few listings.


Idea's are a different story.
Figure out a better mousetrap on paper, post it on the Internet and if the idea is a good one it will get stolen and probably get patented under the thiefs name.
Pursue the idea far enough, build your better mousetrap to prove it works and the same thing happens.

To a great degree, even patents aren't good enough nowadays.
Get a patent on your mousetrap, get a company interested in building it, start selling it and 2-4 months down the line the Chinese - via an unscrupulous American company/distributor - will have a knock off, sell a bunch for a cheaper price and even if you win in court you've already lost.

Thanks for the responses to my query. They make a lot of sense. I am very thankful to this site for providing me with a forum to 'test the waters', so to speak, and improve my writing style and my ability to articulate my inner voice. It is such a great outlet for me, much better than just typing my thoughts into my pc and leaving them there.

much better than just typing my thoughts into my pc and leaving them there.

Don't just leave them there.

Are you an expert in a particular field?
Somewhat expert?
Well informed?
Can explain the subject well?

Magazines are looking for free-lancers who can knock out an interesting piece for their publication.

Magazines consume the written word and are always on the lookout for what they can put in next month's mag.

Thanks for the inspiration. I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none kind of guy. I have a strong technical background in applied mathematics, and a career in restaurant/nightclub/college foodservice management that has been interrupted by a series of disabling back injuries. Poor me.

I'm currently trying to force the CA work comp system to fulfill its mandate and retrain me, as I can no longer walk well enough (hardly at all) to return to my previous job (where the last back injury occurred). I have a Tech Writing Cert. program all set up and ready to go, I just need it approved and funded. I think they're waiting for me to go under or insane, whichever comes first. They are messing with the wrong guy, though. I never wanted any part of work comp to begin with, but, oh no, they are the ones that said it was a work injury in the first place, not me....

Meanwhile, I have written several non-fiction stories about my personal experiences that are decent, even been told to submit one to Reader's Digest.

As far as all the WILD true stories I post,I expect to be credited as the author, as plagarization courts are messy..