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

Hi Don,
I've been running Leman the last two nights or would have dug up and uploaded one of the various beginings of my sci fi work. Having just looked at the terms of use that the BBC claim for anything that is uploaded to "get writing", you may not want to put more of Borrowed Time on, in case the 'sub-licensing' clause puts off publishers. I guess it means that they can commission a third party to film some derivitive of a work for no royalties to the author. Which would generally be a bad thing for any really long term projcts.

That's interesting, I must have a read of the small print. At the seminar at Hay, Emily Angle clearly said that copyright remained firmly with the author...

Yang

Hiya

Indeedy, Yang. Good point! Byll - let's answer your points:


<< you may not want to put more of Borrowed Time on, in case the 'sub-licensing' clause puts off publishers. >>

Publishers only consider work to have had 'first print' somewhere else if it's actually in print. Being on a website does not devalue the exclusivity of the work for them.

Besides, it's very unlikely that the work as it will be published will be the same as your work-in-progress that is shown here...

<>

Absolutely not!!! We are only permitted to use work on the site for the purposes of promotion for Get Writing - we certainly are not willing or able to develop any work posted here for general BBC purposes. We value our relationship with the writing profession too much to jeopardise it so casually.

Hope this is clear and that you'll continue to share your work with the community - we rely on your contributions to keep us alive and kicking.

e

Thanks for clearing that one up. Anyway, I think if the bbc ran away with my story and made a film of it I'd be flattered. Then I might sue...

Yang

Thanks Emily,
I'm sorry to have missed the session at Hay that Don went to, (I hadn't pre-booked any tickets, and only arrived the night before).
The reason I had the impression above was that I followed some route from 'Write' to bbc.co.uk/terms, one of which said.

"Where you are invited to submit any contribution to bbc.co.uk (including any text, photographs, graphics, video or audio) you agree, by submitting your contribution, to grant the BBC a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licenseable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, make available to the public, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to your contribution worldwide and/or to incorporate your contribution in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in your contribution, and in accordance with privacy restrictions set out in the BBC's Privacy Policy. If you do not want to grant to the BBC the rights set out above, please do not submit your contribution to bbc.co.uk. "

Now I don't claim to understand law or publishing, and will not be put off putting something of mine on the site (if only to give Don a laugh) since it's not much good. But we all have to make our own decisions and very rarely I get the itch to point things out to friends that I think they might have missed.
Byll

Hmmm... This does seem to be at odds with your position, Emily. Perhaps postings on GW don't count as 'submissions' in a legal context? Would you follow this one up please?

Thanks.

Yang

Hi Byll and Yang

Yes, I know the terms and conditions sound like we have the right to emblazon your work on the side of TVC and the Kremlin while we're at it... But there's a difference between what we legally have the right to do (the terms we must set out to avoid a lawsuit) and what the BBC would do. Have a look at <./>copyright</.> for more info. This was signed off by our legal team, so is not at odds with the Terms in our minds.

I suppose what you must bear in mind is that the BBC wants a minimum of risk - if using someone's work from this site in a broadcast, without stipulating this up front at the time of submission (as with some of our competitions), is going to bring disrepute to the corporation - we'd rather shell out a bit of cash to keep our good name. Whereas if we made a screensaver using the best quotes from people's work on the site, as a marketing tool or fun freebie to download from GW, we'd need to ensure no one could sue us for using that sentence or two. It's a balancing act that looks legally quite frightening, but common sense does play a reassuringly strong role.

Does that make sense?

e

Thanks Emily

Borrowed Time emblazoned on the side of the Kremlin... hmmm, I like that! What do you think Byll? When can we start?

Yang

I think we know what you're saying. Corporate liability has gone a bit mad lately and I guess the BBC is a target. I say some other stuff when I went back and looked again about 'getting back to anyone whose work was interesting enough based on standard BBC conditions' - I don't have the proper quote this time So the intention not to rip anybody's stiff off is stated.
It's fine for a bit of fun, which is all I'd be thinking off.
People are entitled to make their minds up on the small print as well as the big picture though.
Byll