How is an author compensated for electronic publication?
A.You’ll note that in answering previous questions, I’ve said that the works that volunteers are putting on-line can’t be under copyright. When out-of-copyright works go on-line, compensation to an author or her heirs is no longer involved, due to the amount of time since the work was written.Alternately, an author or publisher can agree to allow a specific person or group, such as the Celebration, to reproduce a copyrighted work on-line. This has happened in some cases where a work is no longer being reprinted, and the author wants the work to be available to readers. The author benefits by having her work made more accessible, but no money changes hands, either from readers to us as on-line “publishers”, or from us to the author. The author still retains all of her rights over other types of reproduction, and can request that we withdraw our on-line version if she so wishes.
A. You’ll note that in answering previous questions, I’ve said that the works that volunteers are putting on-line can’t be under copyright. When out-of-copyright works go on-line, compensation to an author or her heirs is no longer involved, due to the amount of time since the work was written. Alternately, an author or publisher can agree to allow a specific person or group, such as the Celebration, to reproduce a copyrighted work on-line. This has happened in some cases where a work is no longer being reprinted, and the author wants the work to be available to readers. The author benefits by having her work made more accessible, but no money changes hands, either from readers to us as on-line “publishers”, or from us to the author. The author still retains all of her rights over other types of reproduction, and can request that we withdraw our on-line version if she so wishes.
