Ownership Concerns...

[Deeply_Twisted]

Hi All,

I've been here a little while now, and I've been really pumping out a story with a collaborator here.

I really feel like this is some of the finest writing I have ever done, and I kind of want to share it or at least solicit some feedback.

I have concerns about ownership though. I did read the terms of service on the site and they state that I own any story I've created unconditionally, but I'm on the site under my handle and not my name. Also, terms of service change all the time and I'd hate to post something today that I don't own in six months because the site has to change their TOS.

Does anyone have any advice, feedback or thoughts on this? I'm 25% of the way to my 300 page goal, and I'm really leery about posting anything on the site with concerns like this.

DT

 

[sun_sea_sky]

My view is that I post things under the terms of service on the day I posted. Also, people can't just "take away" your copyright by fiat.

 

[sun_sea_sky]

As for your name, people use pen-names all the time. That shouldn't be an issue.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

The site makes clear in its terms of service that you retain all rights to your story. All you're extending to Literotica is a non-exclusive right to publish your story, and that right can be revoked by you at any time. You are agreeing to that arrangement by submitting your story. If the site wanted to approach this any other way they would need to publish new terms of service, but the site can't unilaterally change those terms retroactively and claim rights to your story you've not explicitly extended.

From a practical viewpoint I don't think your concerns should stop you from submitting. I've been on the site for two years as an author and for some years before that as a reader. I've never seen the site have any other terms of service. And were the site to make that change and, for instance, lay out terms of service through which you are extending to the site an exclusive right of publication for some period of time, I'm sure the site would see submissions almost disappear. Really, since Literotica is not publishing stories with the purpose of selling them there is no need for them to have any exclusive right to stories. That's only necessary for publishers who are making an investment in stories through paper printing, active editing, developing covers or other artwork, and the like.

 

[nicecthulhu]

Don't worry too much about the terms of service here.
You're publishing a story on the internet with no plan for monetary compensation, so it doesn't really matter if you own it or not. You're putting it out there for people to read, to see if anyone enjoys it, and to see if anyone enjoys it a lot. And you're putting it out there for free.
They let you take your stories down whenever you want.
So you do still own it, but I think it's still pretty easy to steal your story from this site. There seem to be some readers on this site that alert others when they find a story stolen from Literotica, and they announce it in a thread. So the readers are actually a line of defence here and some of them may get very irate of they spot your story making money under someone else's name.
Besides, if someone steals your story and tries to make money off it, doesn't that mean that as a writer you're good enough to make some money? You're the writer so you've got more in you waiting to get out. The story thief has to steal because they can't do anything else.
I've posted around 250 000 words on this site in the last year (almost a year now, wow!) and I think you'll find the people here friendly and concerned for each other's welfare, for the most part. A lot of advice gets thrown around.

 

[Deeply_Twisted]

thanks everybody...

I don't know if i'm quite ready to post my story, but you all allayed a lot of my concerns.

I'll ponder this and make a decision when the whole thing is done.

DT

 

[estragon]

Deeply, if you're that concerned you can register your story with the US Copyright Office if you want to spend the $35 fee and use your real name. The whole story can be found on their website: http://www.copyright.gov/

Of course, if someone steals your work after you've registered it, you can sue. Good luck with that.

 

[sun_sea_sky]

I think posting here could work in your favour. Say you upload the story, it is dated, and you can "prove" it is yours because you control your account here. For example, you can make a forum posting with some code word in it.

Then it appears a month later on Amazon, ripped off. The fact that the identical story appears here, dated earlier, is prima facie evidence that the one here is the original.

 

[estragon]

sun, true, and you can post a review on Amazon blasting the thief, and Amazon will treat that as a DMCA notice and take down the offending story. In the meantime, however, the thief has gotten whatever profit there was to be made, and can always try publishing somewhere else.

Example- Some crook using the alt "Elizabeth Summers" ripped off Sir_Nathan's classic "Culture Shock", the all-time best BDSM on Lit (37 pages, and I stayed up all night reading it). Someone here, I forget who, spotted it, put it on a thread, and I posted a review calling out the thief (and e-mailed Sir_Nathan to make sure he wasn't publishing it under an alt). He wasn't, and Amazon pulled the stolen work.

But in the USA, registration is the only way you can pursue the thief for money. Of course, most of the time it's probably a lost cause; the thief has probably made away with the loot long before, even if you can catch him/her.

 

[TxRad]

sun, true, and you can post a review on Amazon blasting the thief, and Amazon will treat that as a DMCA notice and take down the offending story. In the meantime, however, the thief has gotten whatever profit there was to be made, and can always try publishing somewhere else.

Example- Some crook using the alt "Elizabeth Summers" ripped off Sir_Nathan's classic "Culture Shock", the all-time best BDSM on Lit (37 pages, and I stayed up all night reading it). Someone here, I forget who, spotted it, put it on a thread, and I posted a review calling out the thief (and e-mailed Sir_Nathan to make sure he wasn't publishing it under an alt). He wasn't, and Amazon pulled the stolen work.

But in the USA, registration is the only way you can pursue the thief for money. Of course, most of the time it's probably a lost cause; the thief has probably made away with the loot long before, even if you can catch him/her.

Most of the time, not only does Amazon pull the work but they ban the poster and their ISP and PayPal freezes the persons account.

 

[estragon]

TxRad, That's good to hear, but then comes the fight to get whatever's left in the frozen PayPal account. And the legal fees may be more than whatever the thief didn't already take.

 

[Stella_Omega]

What are you worried about-- your collaborator wanting part ownership? That's something you will have to hash out with them.

I have a friend who has said that anything we collab on and gets printed after my polishing and rewriting belongs entirely to me, but I have a hard time accepting that.