- Joined
- Oct 1, 2010
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This is an amazing story about a writer who came up with a speculative fiction story, posted it to Reddit, and managed to get a movie deal out of it.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/does-warner-bros-have-movie-250726
That's the good news. The bad news is that Reddit's user agreement gives the site an unlimited, non-exclusive right to use the story. Italics are on the word "use" because the definition of "use" in that agreement is pretty broad. Here are the relevant sections that are quoted in the article:
(The original source is here)
Lots of writing forums have spaces for people to post their work for peer review and critique. These are useful for honing one's craft. However, the people need to check the site's terms of use before doing this. Then there is the question of whether or not the work is actually intended to be published somewhere down the line.
It will be interesting to hear people discuss this on the This Week In Law (http://twit.tv/twil) podcast this weekend. The fellow who wrote this article is a regular on the show.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/does-warner-bros-have-movie-250726
That's the good news. The bad news is that Reddit's user agreement gives the site an unlimited, non-exclusive right to use the story. Italics are on the word "use" because the definition of "use" in that agreement is pretty broad. Here are the relevant sections that are quoted in the article:
you agree that by posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter developed) and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.
(The original source is here)
Lots of writing forums have spaces for people to post their work for peer review and critique. These are useful for honing one's craft. However, the people need to check the site's terms of use before doing this. Then there is the question of whether or not the work is actually intended to be published somewhere down the line.
It will be interesting to hear people discuss this on the This Week In Law (http://twit.tv/twil) podcast this weekend. The fellow who wrote this article is a regular on the show.
