Publishing Law Archives - SEQ Legal

The law relating to the publication of books, journals, newspapers, magazines and their electronic equivalents is, I think, one of the most interesting areas of legal study. Although the core principles of publishing law are enduring, change is a constant.  The manifestation of the principles of the law of publishing in legislation and case law […]

Perhaps because author agreements last a long time, many publishers use the same standard contract for a long period. Many years may pass by between comprehensive contract reviews. If you are a publisher, and your contracts are starting to look a little archaic, then this post should help you. It highlights some of the key […]

Let’s suppose you’ve published a book by a new author.  You didn’t produce a contract document at the time, or perhaps you did produce a contract document, but it was never signed.  You agreed the basics – advance, royalty rates and so on – in an exchange of emails.  And perhaps you’ve paid the advance […]

The ease and informality of digital publishing have led to an increase in complaints about false attribution: that is, representations that a person is the author of a work – such as a blog post, photo or graphic – when he or she is not. There are several common scenarios: using the name of a […]

User-generated content can be a real headache for website operators.   One particular risk associated with such content is defamation; however there is a special defence to libel actions which may assist a website operator who is accused of publishing defamatory content submitted by users. See my most on “Dealing with defamatory posts on your website […]

The preponderance of the laws that regulate commercial conduct online are the same laws that regulate commercial conduct offline: contract law, the law of torts, commercial law, consumer law, intellectual property law, and so on. If you know a little (or a lot) about publishing law, you know a little (or a lot) about digital […]