If you’ve taken the necessary steps to register your copyrighted
works, you inevitably will have an opportunity to royalties off
of them. To take advantage of the opportunity, you will need to
be familiar with copyright license agreements.
Copyright License Agreement
A copyright license agreement sets for the terms under which a
third party can use your content. In legal language, you will
the “licensor” with the other party being the “licensee.” The
purpose of the agreement is to set forth the terms under which
you, the licensor, will grant the third party, licensee, the
right to use, publish or reuse your copyrighted work in exchange
for a royalty. Let’s take a closer look at key components of the
licensing agreement.
Specific Rights Granted
This may sound obvious, but the agreement needs to detail
exactly what copyrighted material can be used. If you have
copyrighted articles, are you granting a right to use all of the
articles or only certain ones? It is highly recommended that the
agreement contain a detailed description of the exact materials
being covered.
Once you agree upon the exact materials, you need to determine
any restrictions on how the material can be used. Can the
material be used on the Internet or will it be restricted to a
certain niche’ such as manuals or collections of materials?
An extremely important issue is whether the agreement grants
exclusive or non-exclusive rights. In English, this simply
defines whether the licensor can grant similar rights to other
parties. The grant of exclusive licenses should require a much
larger royalty rate since you are essentially betting the third
party will be successful.
Licensing Royalties
In exchange for your copyrighted work, the third party is going
to make royalty payments to you. The particular amount of the
royalty is dependent upon the nature of your work. Issues to
consider include:
1)Will you be paid a flat amount or percentage of sales? 2)If a
percentage, will it be figured from gross revenues or something
less? 3)How often will you be paid? 4)What rights will you have
to audit the books of the third party to determine you are
getting the full royalty?
In some situations, you may decide to forgo a royalty payment.
This usually occurs when the third party will use the materials
in manner that produces massive publicity for you. For example,
many professionals seek to right columns for publications as a
marketing tool. Often, they will not charge the publication for
the material because the resulting publicity carries enough of a
benefit.
In Closing
If you are considering licensing copyrighted content, keep the
above in mind. Since such agreements are difficult to break,
hiring an attorney is worth the expense.
About Author :
Richard Chapo is with SanDiegoBus
inessLawFirm.com - providing San Diego businesses
with legal services. Nothing in this article creates
an attorney-client relationship.
