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?
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 