Former employer selling stories they got for free

Many of the freelance contracts I've signed grant exclusive rights to the paper for only a limited amount of time -- typically one, two or three days. -- and/or within its circulation area. After that period or outside the geographical area, the work can be published again. But that doesn't take away the paper's right to do whatever it wants with the work (that right is usually granted "in perpetuity").

 

I was indeed working part-time for the university and agree that the material belongs to them to do as they wish.
My problem is that my greedy former employer is attempting to make money off something they didn't pay for. Middle management getting bonuses while laying off workers (The typical scenario).
I agree that the stories have little worth to anyone and in fact I have them on my website for anyone who wants them for free.
Have already heard back from former co-worker at the newspaper who says he will take them off the list of available content.
Of note, he says no one has purchased the stories in the time they have been available, as I suspected.

 

You bring up a good point. I guess these sort of things should be negotiated and agreed to in advance.

 

Can the articles be realistically sold?

 

It sounds like your beef is out of spite, not legality.

The university bought them and you OK'd it for them to do as they wished.

They wished to make it available to your former employer. What your former employer does with them is the university's business, not yours.

If the university wishes to pursue it, it's theirs to pursue.

You sold your dog in the fight. It's really none of your business anymore. Asking your former co-worker to remove the stories from the newspaper's website was out of line. The material is not your property. If the university objects, their legal representatives should be the ones to act.

In addition, if the university bought the rights to your stories, you might be in error in making them available for free on your own website.

 

Well, first of all, talk to a lawyer.

However, be aware that if you make too much of a stink about it (this line may have already been crossed) the newspaper will quit running the stories.

As far as they are concerned they are getting content from the university for free. They don't care what it cost the university to obtain this content. If you make an issue out of demanding compensation, most likely they will say 'the hell with it' and stop.

I am pretty sure (under US law anyway) that any story you write at the direction of a purchaser (the university, 'the paper,' magazine, website, etc) is considered a Work Made For Hire and 'the paper' essentially assumes full ownership of it upon payment of your agreed fee. If they agree to pay you $50 for it, as long as they pay that $50 they can do whatever they want with it -- they can spike it, they can give it away for nothing, they can reprint it 100 times, they can sell it for 50 cents or they can sell it for $50,000.

Now if you come to them with a story you have generated on your own and propose to sell it to them, YOU can make demands regarding their resale rights. You can grant specifically limited resale rights, you can specify rights reverting to you at certain points, etc etc.

Obviously to make these demands you must have leverage: either you as an author/content producer needs to be marketable enough to make the demands, or the story you are selling needs to be unique and desirable to 'the paper.'

In this case, your purchaser is the university. They offered to pay you $50 per story and you agreed.

Unless both you and the subject matter are very marketable commodities, I would be pretty careful in making any demands for the paper (a third party in regard to you) to pay money. If they can get somebody else to generate the content for free, they are almost certainly going to go with them instead.

 

He doesn't need a lawyer. He should read his freelance contract with the university. It most certainly lays out that it owns the story. Even if the newspapers is selling it (sounds like they just put it out there, but no one is buying), it's not the freelancers property. Freelancers who do stories on assignment for an entity do not own those stories.

 

Only if they sign an agreement specifically assigning all rights to the purchaser.

Again, unless the material is marketable to other potential buyers, it's probably a moot issue.

Legally, he does have additional rights, but as I noted in the post above, if he attempts to assert these rights, the newspaper is quite likely to quit using the material altogether.

 

IMO, crux of it right there. It's not your business.

 

Yes, if he was working for the university on an hourly basis (even if part-time) then whatever he produces during those hours, whether it be widgets or wingdings or wombats or sports stories, belongs to them: work-for-hire.

 

Case in point: The person who designed FSU's logo was an intern, or on a similar pay scale. I think the story goes the person was compensated $25.

 

There's another story about the woman who designed the "Play Like a Champion" sign over Notre Dame's locker room. She makes money off it because Notre Dame originally said they didn't have the rights to it.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8765862/notre-dame-play-champion-today-sign