Help!

[Bob Hinton]

Has anyone had to take a publisher to court over a legal matter? Are there any law firms that specialise in publishing cases?

[Mike Covell]

I tried Bob.

I tried to take an American self publishing house to court over a work that was published through their website using my research. I had to provide time stamped images of my research, times and publication names where it appeared, and all sorts.

In the end I was told that a British law firm would not take on an American self publishing house because of the differences in copyright laws. The American based self publishing house did withdraw the copy, but it was put back on sale again after a few months. The American company stated that it was not in their interests to check every single book that is published through them, but they will investigate to see whether an infringement of copyright has occurred.

For reasons I can not go into, I got the last laugh.

[Bob Hinton]

Many thanks

My situation is slightly different. A publishing company in this country has been publishing and selling my book even though they do not own the publishing rights- I do.

I first stumbled across this two years ago and contacted them to point this out. They said very sorry we won't do it again and then proceeded to do just that. I was recently tipped off about this by a member of these boards. I have been in contact with them again and they once again said 'Oh sorry - it's Amazons fault'.

This time I am not prepared to let this go as I think this is a disgraceful way to treat anyone.

[Chris Scott]

Hi Bob
have a look at

http://www.bllaw.co.uk/sectors/publishing/advice_for_authors.aspx

Might help
Chris

[Bob Hinton]

Many thanks

Thank you for that link I have sent them an email.

[Chris G.]

Hi Bob
have a look at

http://www.bllaw.co.uk/sectors/publishing/advice_for_authors.aspx

Might help
Chris

Hi Chris, Bob, et al.

Thanks for the link, Chris. Besides the "Advice for Authors" page on that site, I also think the "Advice for Publishers" is worth checking out. Of course the thorny area of "intellectual property" concerns publishers as well as authors and is something to bear in mind when using illustrations and other material from various sources. In my work life I know that this is becoming a particularly hot area as publishers are beginning to charge more and more for use of material that they have published.

Some of you may know that I work as a medical editor in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, I have to purchase the rights of such previously published material for my organization to reprint in the continuing medical education book that I edit and that is published annually in five distinct areas of obstetrics and gynecology. I recently refused to pay the $1,000 that a publisher wanted to republish a table, judging that the particular question for the book could run without that table -- obviously if we had to pay $1,000 for every table and figure we republished, we would be unable to publish the book.

I am also finding that medical publishers are now starting to charge not only for tables and figures but for quotes from text that is republished in another book or article, even if properly attributed. As a historian on the War of 1812 and as an author on aspects of the Ripper case and other topics, I am fond of using quotes from other authors (secondary sources) and from primary sources such as documents in archives. If publishers and property rights owners such as archives are now beginning to charge for use of such material, actual text from books or manuscripts, it's something that authors in this field might want to keep in mind.

Best regards

Chris

[Mike Covell]

I think there has been some confusion over my post on this thread. My quibble was with someone totally unrelated to the arena of Ripperology and in no way connected to any of the message boards or field in general.