Copyright – Advice please

J
Posted By
JulieCEvans
Oct 21, 2005
Views
283
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hi

I,m not sure this is the right forum for this question, but I would love some advice from you learned people.

I jointly own a magazine with my partner.

I design some 95% of the adverts (the rest are supplied by the advertisers)

The ads design is offered ‘free’ in other words, if an advertiser supplies his own ad there is no reduction in cost.

We have the standard disclaimer in the magazine
"No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior permission in writing from the publisher"

A new rival publication has been printed in our area, looking very similar to ours, but that is not the problem, what has really annoyed me is that they have scanned (very badly) a large number of the adverts I have designed and printed them in thier magazine.

My question is:
Do I and our magazine own the copyright on those ads or does the advertiser?

If anyone out there can offer some words of wisdom I would be most grateful

Best regards
Julie
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TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
Oct 21, 2005
Do I and our magazine own the copyright on those ads or does the advertiser?

yes with out a doubt, you cn certanly stop them form doing this, and even maybe claim compensation, seek legal advice.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 21, 2005
they have scanned (very badly) a large number of the adverts

Why on earth are they doing that? Is it the wish of the vendors concerned with the ads? surely they don’t want "bad scans".

They won’t be paying for that. But if there is no advertisement income, what’s the other magazine’s reason to print them?

And Thee_ is right. Seek legal advice.

Rob
J
JulieCEvans
Oct 21, 2005
We believe a majority of the advertisers are not paying this month for the ads, they are putting them in for free in the hope that they can catch them next month.

they have scanned (very badly) a large number of the adverts

is a perhaps bit of an exaggeration on my part, they just don’t look as good as my originals.

We aren’t too worried that they will take a lot of our advertisers as their content is poor, we have noticed one article where they have taken text word for word off different web sites even leaving in grammatical errors and spelling mistakes!!

I appreciate both the replies received, many thanks

Julie
JO
Jim_Oblak
Oct 21, 2005
Unless you previously specify to your advertiser that they cannot take their ad (designed by you) to the other guy, they might just be doing that.

You cannot hold an exclusive copyright to the movie poster for Wallace and Gromit in your entertainment section. Likewise it may be argued in court that you do not hold exclusive copyrights to advertising material submitted by a client (yet still formatted/designed by you). You will have to prove what distinctive design you did for the client and judges and juries often have no clue about creatives. This is why you should also specify your rights in writing to the advertising client when they come to you. Unless the other newspaper has copied something distinctive from your paper that clearly identifies that they stole it from you (such as your masthead), you have little room in court without a contract between you and the original advertiser.

Have an attorney assist you with contracts for future advertising. It may be too much of a mess for past issues.
L
LJM
Nov 25, 2005
One of the keys to copyright is registering the copyright. Although in photography the copyright exists the moment of creation, inforcement is usually difficult because of legal fees. But the way around it is to pay the registration fee. Then if a copyright is infringed, the other person has to pay your legal fees !!!! (Asssiming you win.)

Check out registration. It may be worth the bother.

I am not a lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice — only help in providing a direction in your search.

LJM

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 02:00:05 -0700, wrote:

Hi

I,m not sure this is the right forum for this question, but I would love some advice from you learned people.

I jointly own a magazine with my partner.

I design some 95% of the adverts (the rest are supplied by the advertisers)
The ads design is offered ‘free’ in other words, if an advertiser supplies his own ad there is no reduction in cost.

We have the standard disclaimer in the magazine
"No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior permission in writing from the publisher"

A new rival publication has been printed in our area, looking very similar to ours, but that is not the problem, what has really annoyed me is that they have scanned (very badly) a large number of the adverts I have designed and printed them in thier magazine.

My question is:
Do I and our magazine own the copyright on those ads or does the advertiser?
If anyone out there can offer some words of wisdom I would be most grateful
Best regards
Julie

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