As one of the authors caught up in the issues involving Aspen Mountain Press I, like the other authors find that the reversion of rights clauses can be easily blocked by publishers.
This is not the first time such a thing had happened and I don't think it will be the last (unfortunately).
At the moment we have to write and rewrite, regarding breahces of contract, or if the contracts have expired. If the period for reply elapses without reply then we send another letter, etc, etc etc. to be able to show posisble publishers the rights have reverted to the author.
I have been thinking about this and wonder whether or not the following could be a solution:
Would it be possible to form a central registry of some sort for authors' rights, similar to what now happens to copyright?
Just as copyright is registered, at the moment of signing the contract the registration of rights can also be made. This would also help publishers for they would know for certain that the rights belong to the author or to another publisher.
Any request for return of rights due to breach of contract, etc, will then need to be handled by a separate, independant third party. This would also avoid possible (and expensive) legal action in case of dispute...
The situation would not be easy to start off, but I think in the long term such a registry could avoid situations such as the one at AMP where the owner refuses to even open letters, etc, let alone answer them or comply with the request.
I wonder what everyone thinks of this....
This is not the first time such a thing had happened and I don't think it will be the last (unfortunately).
At the moment we have to write and rewrite, regarding breahces of contract, or if the contracts have expired. If the period for reply elapses without reply then we send another letter, etc, etc etc. to be able to show posisble publishers the rights have reverted to the author.
I have been thinking about this and wonder whether or not the following could be a solution:
Would it be possible to form a central registry of some sort for authors' rights, similar to what now happens to copyright?
Just as copyright is registered, at the moment of signing the contract the registration of rights can also be made. This would also help publishers for they would know for certain that the rights belong to the author or to another publisher.
Any request for return of rights due to breach of contract, etc, will then need to be handled by a separate, independant third party. This would also avoid possible (and expensive) legal action in case of dispute...
The situation would not be easy to start off, but I think in the long term such a registry could avoid situations such as the one at AMP where the owner refuses to even open letters, etc, let alone answer them or comply with the request.
I wonder what everyone thinks of this....
