Are you hesitant to present your manuscript, to have it read, to upload it to platforms… In short, to make it public? You don't know if, once exposed to everyone, your work will still belong to you? Are you wondering how to protect it? How do you maintain ownership and assert your copyright in your book
Are you hesitant to present your manuscript, to have it read, to upload it to platforms… In short, to make it public? You don't know if, once exposed to everyone, your work will still belong to you? Are you wondering how to protect it? How do you maintain ownership and assert your copyright in your book?
You are hesitating between two possibilities (although not necessarily mutually exclusive): proposing your work to a publisher, by sending your manuscript to several publishing houses or by presenting it on Édith & Nous , and in this case giving in your rights in return for remuneration (through the publishing contract), or self-publish your book and keep all of your copyright (as well as the management of all income from the exploitation of your book ) ?
But first of all, what is copyright and what does it mean to transfer your rights? Concretely.
In France, copyright corresponds to all the rights available to an author or his beneficiaries (for example: heirs or rights management companies) over works of an original nature.
As the author of an original work, you benefit from two types of prerogatives over your work:
Economic rights (known as reproduction and representation rights) which allow you to prohibit or authorize the exploitation of your work and to receive remuneration in return. These rights may be subject to assignment or license;
A moral right under which you can object to the first non-consensual disclosure of your work, demand that your name be mentioned when your work is used or even prohibit any modification of the work that would undermine its integrity. Unlike property rights, moral rights cannot be transferred in that they are attached to the creator of the work. It is transmitted to the heirs of the author.
Copyright arises from the sole fact of the creation of the work, without the formality of filing or registration (unlike a trademark for example, which must be registered with the National Institute of Technology). Industrial Property, INPI), provided that the work is original. The condition of originality is not defined by law, it results from different court decisions rendered on this subject over time. Ultimately, we consider that copyright is based on this personal link which exists between the author and his work. A work is therefore considered original if it bears the mark of the personality of its author, which is reflected in particular through the free and creative choices expressed by the author.
A protected work may be composed of several works which are themselves protectable. For example, a comic strip is made up of illustrations, dialogues and a storyline and therefore of several works. In this, each work within the work is to be protected individually.
On the other hand, you will never be able to protect an idea or a concept, copyright only protects the work from the moment when it is the subject of an expression, when it becomes visible, audible, tangible , and that’s very happy! Indeed, if the simple idea gave rise to a right for the benefit of its thinker, we would no longer have any source of creation for writing books, painting, making music, for inventing... and have been for a long time! In other words, intellectual creations must be materially perceptible in their forms in order for them to benefit from copyright protection.
HOW LONG IS MY BOOK COPYRIGHTED
In terms of duration of protection, it is necessary to distinguish economic rights from the moral rights of the author.
Moral rights are perpetual and imprescriptible. It is therefore transmitted on the death of the author to his heirs.
Unlike moral rights, property rights are limited in time. Indeed, it was considered that after a certain period of time, the work must fall into the public domain so that it can be freely and freely used by everyone. This limit of protection is set at 70 years after the death of the author.
Thus your work is protected by copyright throughout your life, but also for the 70 years following your death. In the event of infringement during the protection period, you or your heirs will be able to assert your rights to the work and request, for each use, financial compensation.
The duration of the author's economic rights should not be confused with the duration of the transfer of rights to a publisher. Such a duration is explicitly provided for during the transfer, and may not correspond to the duration of the copyright (it obviously cannot exceed them). The duration of copyright should also not be confused with the duration of validity of a deposit made under the conditions described below, such duration corresponding to the duration of conservation of a work as proof. This deposit must be renewed as many times as necessary until the publication of your book.
HOW DO I ASSERT THE COPYRIGHT ON MY WORK?
If there is no deposit or registration obligation for copyright to arise, this does not mean that there is no interest in “registering” your work.
Depositing a work makes it possible to establish its existence on a given date and to prove that you are indeed its author, which is useful in the event that a dispute arises between you and another person who would claim authorship of the work.
Thus, to give a certain date to your work, attribute authorship to you and thus assert your copyright in the event of a dispute with a third party, various means (more or less costly) are at your disposal: