h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I may be being stupid, but I'm having a bit of difficulty with the terms and conditions. My specific interest is whether a submission to the guide entry could be published elsewhere - for instance if an author wanted to publish a body of work "The collected writings of. . .", would there be anything to stop Guide Entries being included? Or if the piece was re-hashed for a local paper or magazine, would it constitute an infringement? I don't mean anyone else's entries, I mean a specific author publishing their own entry elsewhere.
And finally. . .do the terms and condition allow the bbc to publish author's work without their consent, and without any royalties being paid to the author?
This is, you understand, only a point of interest.
Frogbit.

Hi Frogbit.

We're always happy to explain the rules, so feel free to ask!

If you publish some of your work on h2g2 and you then want to publish it elsewhere, that's no problem at all. You still own the copyright; all you have granted us is permission to publish, edit and so on. Some publishers might not want to publish material that's already available on a site like this, but that's their choice; there's nothing to stop them publishing it if they (and you) want to.

This only applies to your own entries, though. As soon as they are edited or added to by others (which would include Edited Entries) then the situation may be different, depending on how many changes have been made.

You can find more on this in the FAQ at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/DontPanic-Legal#5 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/DontPanic-Legal#6

Also, when you publish material on h2g2, you waive your moral rights. This means that the BBC can publish your material in any media without your consent, and they can also edit it, remove any credits, and so on. It also means you sign away the right to be paid royalties, yes. This is so we can, say, publish the Edited Guide on a CD or in a book without requiring every single author to authorise it (an impossible task!) and can also, say, donate the profits to charity without requiring consent from every author.

Hope this explains things. Basically, our advice is always this: if you intend to publish your work elsewhere, make sure you know what the Terms mean!

That's fine then. Many thanks.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Terms and Conditions' to 'House Rules for h2g2'.

I really don't want to waste anyone's time, but I would like to know exactly what was wrong with the site I linked to in posting 30 of the following thread: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F48874?thread=3861406&post=45667329#p45667329 Many thanks.

It's not that it's urgent or anything - I'm just wondering if anyone reads this space...... ever .