a copyrighted work from a deceased author
your own records, to make sure they are
may be entitled to capital gains treatment
consistent. If there is a mistake, contact the
CHAPTER 13 | COPYRIGHT AND TAXATION | 359
when he or she sel s the work. Consult with a
• 100% of the tax you paid the previous
tax expert if you’re in this situation.
year (110% if you earned over $150,000).
If the amount you currently have withheld
Paying Your Taxes
from your paychecks does not meet the
above test, you may be able to avoid having
When you’re a self-employed writer—not
to make estimated tax payments by asking
employed to write—no income tax is with-
your employer to take more tax out of your
held from your compensation and you don’t
earnings. To do this, file a new Form W-4
receive a W-2 form. Instead, you must pay al with your employer. Keep in mind that if
your income and Social Security taxes to the you don’t have more withheld each month
IRS yourself in the form of periodic payments (and make your own quarterly estimated tax known as estimated taxes. You must pay
payments instead), you’ll have more control
estimated taxes if you’re a sole proprietor and over your cash flow.
expect to owe at least $1,000 in federal tax for
Estimated tax must ordinarily be paid in
the year on your writing business income.
four installments, with the first one due on
EXAMPLE: Joe expects to earn a profit of
April 15, the next June 15, then September
$10,000 from his writing business this year.
15, and finally January 15. However, you
He is in the 28% tax bracket, so he will owe
don’t have to start making payments until
$2,800 in taxes. Thus, he has to pay estimated you actually earn income from your writing taxes during the year.
business. If you don’t receive any income
by March 31, you can skip the April 15
There is one exception to this rule: If you
payment. In this event, you’d ordinarily
paid no taxes last year, you don’t have to pay make three payments for the year, starting any estimated tax this year no matter how
on June 15. If you don’t receive any income
much tax you expect to owe. But this is true by May 31, you can skip the June 15
only if you were a U.S. citizen or resident for payment as well, and so on.
the year and your tax return for the previous
year covered the whole 12 months.
Moreover, if, in addition to being a self-
RESOURCE
employed writer, you hold a job and have
See IRS Publication 505, Tax
taxes withheld from your paychecks by your Withholding and Estimated Tax, for a detailed employer, you need not pay estimated tax if explanation of estimated taxes. You can obtain the amount withheld is at least equal to the the form by cal ing the IRS at 800-TAX-FORM, lesser of:
visiting your local IRS office, or downloading it
• 90% of your total tax due for the
from www.irs.gov.
current year, or
l
C H A P T E R
Obtaining Copyright Permissions
14
Who Owns the Text? ............................................................................................................................. 362
Shifting Ownership of Articles................................................................................................. 362
Shifting Ownership of Electronic Database Reprints .................................................. 363
Start With Online Permission Services ...................................................................................... 363
Copyright Clearance Center ...................................................................................................... 365
iCopyright ...........................................................................................................................................366
Locate the Publisher ..............................................................................................................................366
Permissions Departments ..........................................................................................................366
Locating Publishers ........................................................................................................................ 367
When There Is More Than One Publisher ......................................................................... 367
Contact the Author ...............................................................................................................................368
Special Situations .....................................................................................................................................370
Syndicated Text .................................................................................................................................370
Interviews .............................................................................................................................................370
Letters.....................................................................................................................................................371
Speeches ...............................................................................................................................................371
Out-of-Print Works .........................................................................................................................374
Unpublished Text .............................................................................................................................374
Using Text From Advertisements ............................................................................................375
When You Can’t Find the Rights Holder ....................................................................................375
Likelihood of Discovery ................................................................................................................376
Potential Liability..............................................................................................................................376
Negotiating Text Permission and Fees ........................................................................................378
Make a Request to the Rights Holder .................................................................................. 379
Negotiate Permission Fees ......................................................................................................... 379
Execute a Permission Agreement ........................................................................................... 382
362 | THE COPYRIGHT HANDBOOK
This chapter covers how to get permis- need, you will need to contact either the
sion to use text—whether from a
publisher, the author, or both.
book, magazine, newspaper, news-
Two major industry changes may be
letter, website, or journal. The fol owing
relevant to your search: the shift in owner-
sections will help you identify the company
ship of articles from author to publisher in
or person who owns the rights to the text
the 1980s and the Supreme Court’s 2001
(the “rights holder”) and offers suggestions
decision that freelancers must be compen-
for
how to make your permissions request.
sated for reprints of their works in electronic
It also discusses special situations that occur
databases. Also, special rules apply to
when using text from interviews, speeches, or certain situations, such as interviews and print publications. At the end of the chapter, syndicated columns.
you’ll find two sample text permission
agreements: a short-form agreement and a
longer, more detailed agreement.
CAUTION
Before seeking out the copyright
owner, confirm whether permission is neces-
RESOURCE
sary. No permission is required if the text you
This chapter is adapted from
want to use is in the public domain. And, many
material from Getting Permission, by Richard
uses of text are al owed without permission
Stim (Nolo).
under the fair use privilege. The public domain is
discussed in Chapter 5, and fair use is discussed
in Chapter 10.
Who Owns the Text?
The first step in obtaining permission is to
Shifting Ownership of Articles
make sure you’re asking the correct entity
Before the 1980s, the author of an article
for permission. The owner of the text may
was usually the primary rights holder. At
be the company that published it, the
that time, periodicals traditionally only
author of the text, or no one at all. Who
asked for first “North American serial
owns the text depends on how the rights
rights”: the right to publish the article once
were negotiated between publisher and
in the United States and Canada. However,
author and on law and industry traditions.
in the last 25 years, magazines, journals, and
With the advent of online permission
other periodicals have increasingly obtained
services, your search for the rights owner
reprint, syndication, and other primary
may only require a few swipes, taps, or
clicks. If these services don’t offer what you
CHAPTER 14 | OBTAINING COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS | 363
rights from authors. Therefore, where
Start With Online
multiple publishers have published an article Permission Services
in the last 20 years, your starting point for
permission will be the original publisher of
Two Internet services, iCopyright (www.
the article. For older articles, your best bet is icopyright.com) and the Copyright Clearance to start by contacting the author.
Center (CCC, at www.copyright.com),
have drastical y simplified the process of
obtaining text permissions. Start your quest
Shifting Ownership of Electronic
for permis sion with one of them. By using
Database Reprints
such services, you may avoid having to search
The rules for ownership of electronic rights to for or contact the copyright owner directly.
written works changed dramatical y in 2001. Instead, you need only identify the book,
That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court decided journal, or magazine article and complete an
that freelance writers must be compensated
online form. If the work is part of the service’s
when their works are placed on Internet or
online database, you can usual y obtain
CD-ROM databases such as LexisNexis. The permission within one or two days (some times
Court, in the case of The New York Times
immediately) and pay for the rights you need
v. Tasini (533 U.S. 483 (2001) , found that
by credit card. Acting as the agent and broker
The New York Times and other publishers
for publishers and authors, these permission
committed copyright infringement when they services al ow you to pick and click your way resold freelance newspaper and magazine
through mil ions of works, including books
articles through electronic databases without and journal and magazine articles.
asking permission or making additional
Publishers set the fees with these permis-
payments to the freelancers. The ruling
sion brokers—for example, a national news-
applies to any freelancer who sold an article
paper, via CCC, charges $400 to reprint
without expressly transferring the electronic
an article in a book and $600 to reprint an
rights to the publisher.
article in a national magazine. These prices
If you are seeking electronic rights to an
are similar to those for permissions granted
article written by a freelancer written before without the use of an online service—
1995, chances are good that the freelancer
but if you wish to comparison shop, you
has retained the electronic rights, and you
can contact the copyright owner directly
should start by contacting the freelancer.
following the suggestions below.
After 1995, publishers routinely obtained
The online procedure is often far easier
electronic rights from freelance authors, and than the traditional system of locating and you’re best off contacting the publisher first. cal ing a publisher, negotiating permission,
364 | THE COPYRIGHT HANDBOOK
Creative Commons Licenses
Many content owners, especial y those who
Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND)
place their work on the Internet, provide
“This license al ows for redistribution,
advance permission for the public to make
commercial and non-commercial, as long as
free use of their work by employing one of
it is passed along unchanged and in whole,
several open content licenses developed
with credit to you.”
by the Creative Commons, a nonprofit
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
corporation whose goal is “to cultivate a
(CC BY-NC-SA)
commons in which people can feel free to
“This license lets others remix, tweak, and
reuse not only ideas, but also words, images,
build upon your work non-commercial y, as
and music without asking permission—
long as they credit you and license their new
because permission has already been granted
creations under the identical terms.”
to everyone.” Since its founding in 2001, the
Creative Commons has become a worldwide
Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA)
phenomenon with over 140 mil ion Web pages “This license lets others remix, tweak, and
subject to Creative Commons licenses and
build upon your work even for commercial
search engines dedicated to finding Creative-
purposes, as long as they credit you and
Commons-licensed content on the Internet.
license their new creations under the identical
These licenses were developed to “let
terms. This license is often compared to “copy
authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily left” free and open source software licenses.
mark their creative work with the freedoms
All new works based on yours will carry the
they want it to carry.”
same license
, so any derivatives will also al ow
Copyright owners may choose among one
commercial use. This is the license used by
of the fol owing six types of licenses that al ow Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials varying degrees of permission-free use of the
that would benefit from incorporating content
work involved:
from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.”
Attribution (CC BY)
Attribution-Noncommercial (CC BY-NCP)
“This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak,
“This license lets others remix, tweak, and
and build upon your work, even commercial y, build upon your work non-commercially,
as long as they credit you for the original
and although their new works must also
creation. This is the most accommodating of
acknowledge you and be non-commercial,
licenses offered. Recommended for maximum they don’t have to license their derivative
dissemination and use of licensed materials.”
works on the same terms.”
CHAPTER 14 | OBTAINING COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS | 365
Creative Comm Pa
on ro
s Ldy
ic :e nses (continued)
Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs24
of two Cs within a circle. Clicking on the
(CC BY-NC-ND)
logo or a plain text hyperlink sends the
“This license is the most restrictive of our
user to a page on the Creative Commons
six main licenses, only al owing others to
website that contains a “Creative Commons
download your works and share them with
deed”—an easy to read, brief description
others as long as they credit you, but they
of the license. The deed, in turn, contains a
can’t change them in any way or use them
hyperlink that sends the user to a copy of
commercially.”
the complete version of the license, referred
Creative-Commons-licensed material
to as “legal code.” For more information
placed on the Internet is supposed to
about Creative Commons licenses, refer to
contain a Creative Commons logo consisting
www.creativecommons.org/licenses.
and signing a written agreement. If a service
• electronic use—reproducing text on
does not represent a publisher—that is, the
websites, in email, in PDF format, or
publisher’s works are not designated in the
The Copyright Handbook Page 63