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This page provides a simple layman's view of the basic concept of copyright and should not be taken as legal advice. Consult an attorney if you think these issues are important to your particular situation.

In general, you own the copyright to whatever you create unless you enter into an agreement (should, and for many situations must, be a written contract) transferring it to another party. As the owner of the copyright, you control how your article, essay, painting, musical composition, or other creative work can be used. Other people must get your permission to use what you have created, and you can require that they pay money for that permission (except for "fair use").

Granting Publication Rights to Fairness.com LLC

Making your creative work available through Fairness.com helps others by sharing what you know with people who need that information... and it also has the potential to help support our project financially (e.g. if we find a way to sell or sublicense such works). But it won't make money for you.

If you have any concerns or doubts about granting us publications rights to a creative work, or if you want to try to earn money from that work, you should not submit it to us. When Fairness.com publishes your writing or other creative work it probably detracts from your ability to get money from someone else for it. If you are interested in such commercial possibilities, read up on the publishing industry, and speak with an attorney and other advisors who are knowledgeable about the particular area of the publishing industry you are interested in. The economics of magazine publishing, cookbook publishing, and elementary school textbook publishing are fairly different from one another, and the most salient contract issues vary accordingly.

[Of course we woulnd't have this page if we didn't want submissions... we're just trying to go overboard to make sure you understand what the issues are. You should know that: (i) you are always able to create and sell, as a new work exclusively owned by you, a revised or expanded version of a work we have published; (ii) it is possible, though not common, that you could sell the same material we have published to another party; (iii) if you don't have a portfolio these Fairness.com "clips" would be a good start toward building one; and (iv) however much exposure you receive from having material on our site may help you sell another creative work.]


Helpful sites with background information on publishing law issues

Trade groups protecting writers