Overseas mag publishes one of my stories without permission

Unless you can afford to hire a lawyer overseas, I do not see what your options are if they do not retract the story once you contact them. The fact that it has already been printed and is available on line can not undo any damages done, if any damage is done.

This may have to do with orphan copyright law in Europe. If they made a minimal attempt to locate the author, then they can claim orphaned, or something like that and use the work. This does not free them from liability though, only restricts damages, as I understand it...

Interested in what others think and suggest...

You can just contact them and ask them to remove it. You never know, they might do it. Sure, its already been there and cached, but its a start.

I'm no expert, but here's my nickle anyway.

Orphan Copyright Law is a US thing, not European.

Technically they had no right to use your work. In reality it may be hard to do anything about it. It's always hard as an individual to act against people in a different country.

Option 1: Contact them and tell them to remove your work immediately or you will take legal action.

Option 2: Send them an invoice. Name your typical price for re-printing and give a 'pay-by-latest' date. If it looks official you may just get lucky enough that they pay without too much trouble. If they don't pay the first one, send a second notice warning that failure to pay will be prosecuted. If they don't pay, send a typical final notice. If they still don't pay you can either ignore the whole event or contact the proper authorities in that country.

As for the legal: You will have to be able to prove that you wrote the thing. A copy of the original print would be a nice start. They may still get away with it by claiming fair use and non-monetary gain though, so you best keep that in mind. It will be especially hard for you probably since the work has already featured online and probably spread a bunch of times, not just one.

In conclusion: Contact them with either a letter or an invoice depending on how pissed and gutsy you are. Threaten with legal action, but for the sake of your own sanity - don't follow through.

Depending on the popularity of the magazine, I would suppose you can add this to a list of publishing credits...

A lot depends on the country.

What a cheek! I'd send them an invoice...and inflate it two-fold. Actually, whose name do they have as author. Have they even put you as author?

Man, I wish I had your problem.

This happened to me a year ago, but within the country. I did a search of my name and came upon an article I had written and had been paid for by another magazine. This second magazine did put my byline, but never asked permission nor paid me. I found their contact info and called them (Emails work, too.). They not only removed the article, but asked me for an invoice and paid me for second serial (reprint) rights.

You have nothing to lose but a lot to gain by contacting them.

Cybernaught said:

Man, I wish I had your problem.

Click to expand...

You WANT to be robbed?

Why not contact those other authors that you noticed throughout said magazine? As you stated, they too may not be aware their work is being used. Enough of you gathered might send this magazine a wake-up call. Most authors have an email or website. Simply attach the link to said magazine with a short blurb regarding how your work was used w/o permission/payment and are they too a victim?

The flipside is, add it to your publishing credentials and move on.

Maybe you should contact the online magazine that published it first and ask them to contact the overseas magazine as well.

I would send an invoice along with a letter explaining that you did not give permission for publication, and wish to know how they acquired your piece. Good luck.