Cover image from pixabay.com I am delighted to confirm that I have completed my PhD at Monash University on copyright reversion. Under the excellent supervision of Author's Interest Project leader Professor Rebecca Giblin (and co-supervisors Associate Professor Genevieve Grant, Professor Mark Davison, and Professor Martin Kretschmer), my thesis examined how reversion rights can help authors … Continue reading PhD completion – Dr Joshua Yuvaraj
Who is terminating their copyrights? New research and open access datasets from the Author’s Interest Project
We're delighted to announce that our latest research, a whole-of-universe study of copyright termination notices constructed from the US Copyright Office's online catalogue, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Led by Joshua Yuvaraj and Rebecca Giblin of the Melbourne Law School, in collaboration with the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform … Continue reading Who is terminating their copyrights? New research and open access datasets from the Author’s Interest Project
Creative Commons Global Summit 2020 – Abstracts and Bios
Marco Villar, CC BY Rebecca, Ula, and I are very excited to be presenting on reversion rights with Professor Caroline Ncube (University of Cape Town) and Brianna Schofield (Authors Alliance, US) on Thursday, 22 Oct 2020, 9:00 UTC (20:00 AEDT) at the Creative Commons Global Summit 2020. We look forward to seeing you all there! … Continue reading Creative Commons Global Summit 2020 – Abstracts and Bios
Exciting new research on the US termination right
Image from pixabay.com At the Author's Interest Project, we've been looking at reversion rights: that is, an author's rights to regain copyright after a specified time or when certain criteria are met, like a book going out of print. We've looked at why reversion rights matter and why publishing contracts are often inadequate repositories for … Continue reading Exciting new research on the US termination right
The Author’s Interest Project at Creative Commons Global Summit 2020!
João Pombeiro, CC BY We (Ula, Rebecca, and Joshua) are thrilled to announce that the Author's Interest Project will be presenting our research at the Creative Commons Global Summit 2020! Together with Brianna Schofield (US Authors Alliance) and Dr Caroline Ncube (University of Cape Town, South Africa), we'll be talking about reversion rights, why they … Continue reading The Author’s Interest Project at Creative Commons Global Summit 2020!
Our new research on publishing contracts is now freely available!
For the last 18 months we've been working hard on research analysing reversion clauses in publishing contracts. That research has now been accepted for publication and will soon appear in the Melbourne University Law Review. In the meantime though, it is freely available to download here! This work demonstrates that book publishing contracts are simply … Continue reading Our new research on publishing contracts is now freely available!
Reversion laws: what’s happening elsewhere in the world?
We’ve been investigating how rights flow between authors and publishers via publishing contracts. Publishers take broad rights, usually for the entire period of copyright. While you can find some provisions for returning rights to authors in contracts (think out of print clauses), they’re not always satisfactorily drafted, can’t evolve to reflect industry changes (like the … Continue reading Reversion laws: what’s happening elsewhere in the world?
Five ways to boost Australian writers’ earnings
By changing our approach to author rights, we can help writers earn more. shutterstock Rebecca Giblin, Monash University and Joshua Yuvaraj, Monash University Who makes the money in publishing? Nobody. This often repeated dark joke highlights a serious issue. The most recent figures show that Australian authors earn just $12,900 a year from writing work … Continue reading Five ways to boost Australian writers’ earnings
New US Authors Guild Survey Shows Declining Incomes
In February 2018 we wrote about surveys of authors' incomes in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Overall the picture these studies painted was one of sharp declines in how much authors made. A new study from the US Authors Guild is showing that things continue to get worse, not better, for authors. … Continue reading New US Authors Guild Survey Shows Declining Incomes
British reversion right tested with Frank Sinatra songs
We've written before about 'reversion' laws - which protect authors by helping them recover their copyrights in certain situations. So you might be interested in knowing about a current American court case involving songs sung by Frank Sinatra. Warner/Chappell, a publishing company, is suing another company, Bourne Co, who gets the royalties from songs written by composer … Continue reading British reversion right tested with Frank Sinatra songs
The Author's Interest 