Copyrighting and First Publication Rights

As a part of projecteducate, the literature gallery moderators will be posting a series of news articles about the literature community and gallery here on deviantART, as well as literature in general. We will be covering various topics that we feel deserve more exposure. Tonight, it's time to talk about copyrighting your writing, and what it means to share your writing online if you'd like to get it published too.

Copyrighting your Writing:

The basics of Copyright

All original works on deviantART are the legal property of the artist who submits them. This means that when you submit any kind of writing as a deviation to deviantART, its yours and you retain all rights to it. The site does not own it, nor can anyone use it or repost it without your permission. Basically, all that intimidating Submission Agreement (the lengthy page of writing you agreed to when submitting for the first time) says is that dA is allowed to host your art when you submit it.

Are there any exceptions?

Yes. If you mark your submission with a Creative Commons License (on the "submission" page, at the bottom), someone may use the piece without directly contacting you, if he or she follows the terms and conditions you specified in the License.

FAQ #226: Does DeviantArt own my art?

Common Myths and Concerns:

Everything posted on the internet is public domain!

No.  When it comes to literature, "public domain" tends to refer to pieces whose copyright has expired or been forfeited. These pieces tend to have been published before the 1900's (though not all pieces published before that date are Public Domain). A good rule of thumb is to assume everything is protected and to cite appropriately.

I can copy other people's writing (and so can others) as long as I credit them.

No. This is considered Copyright Infringement. Unless the artist explicitly states it's free for use, you need permission if you're going to use the piece extensively in your art or copy it wholesale.

I took someone else's poem or story, and then added a background to it and a few new lines. That's okay, right? I credited them.

No, not unless the piece is marked with a Creative Commons License and you followed the guidelines set out by the author - or you have explicit permission to edit the piece.

In certain genres of writing (academic, reviews, etc) you may find yourself citing sections of another person's work. As a general rule, these excerpt are small, and are followed by clear attribution (author, work, date, etc).

I was inspired to write something by someone else's poem or story. My story has a lot of similarities...  

If you're looking at your new piece and you're seeing huge overlaps, or if you've lifted lines, characters and situations directly from the original, it's likely infringing on the original, and might even be straight plagiarism. A good rule to go by is this: if you're not sure, contact the original artist before posting (most writers are A-okay with you doing this if you ask first), or don't post at all.

Plus, you don't want to showcase something you're not comfortable with.

The second I post my poem online, it'll be STOLEN!

While this is an inherent risk in posting online, anything you post on dA is copyrighted to you, and deviantART is good at taking down any art theft that happens on its site. Some factors on how "likely" something of yours is to be stolen include how well you write, how "popular" your deviations are, and how prolific you are as a writer. Personally (and happily), I haven't had anyone steal my writings. I have seen it happen a couple times and in both cases the pieces were placed on blogs, uncredited, and were taken down the moment the writers emailed the blog owners.

In the end, only you can weight the risks and benefits of sharing your art online.


FAQ #257: What sort of permission do I need to use someone else's work?
FAQ #193: How do I prove that I had permission to use someone's work?
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?

Reporting Theft:

If you find that someone on the site has taken and posted your writing without permission, dA has a straightforward system of reporting. The following FAQ's walk you through it.

FAQ #155: How do I report a deviation which I think breaks the rules?
:faq192:

Other Information on Copyright:

Official dA Copyright Policy

FAQ #8: What are violations of the DeviantArt copyright policy?
FAQ #32: Fair Use and Your Submission
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?
FAQ #193: How do I prove that I had permission to use someone's work?
FAQ #250: The laws of my country differ from those of the United States- which ones apply?
FAQ #257: What sort of permission do I need to use someone else's work?

Copyright in the Real World

Nevermind all that. What if I want to post finished pieces online and I want to make super-sure they're copyrighted and I have the law-stick in my hand?

Your best bet in that case would be to go the legal route and file your piece with your country's copyright office. For US residents, that's the United States Copyright Office and it charges a small fee ($35 to file a basic online claim as of today) to register your work.

Mind, this doesn't create a copyright. Copyright exists from the moment you create a poem or story. Registering with an office, however, is a good idea if you wish to have the option of bringing a lawsuit against someone and rock hard ground to stand on. Methods like mailing your writing to yourself and leaving the letter un-opened can be faked and do not carry significant weight in a court of law.

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deviantART and First Publication Rights

Using dA as a workshop and First Rights

You'd like submit some stories or poems to publications and contests that accept only previously unpublished work. But you'd also like to get some feedback and do some work-shopping on dA to polish them up before sending. Does posting something online mean you've already published it?

Many publishing companies and magazines prefer to publish previously unpublished pieces. "First Rights" is the right of anyone to present your piece to the world for the very first time. This includes letters you send to the newspaper, self-publishing, blog posts, and dA submissions. Once the piece is out there, First Rights have been used; it's out there in the world. Any printing or publishing afterward will be a reprint.

Some places accept a distinction between "First Print Rights" and "First Electronic Right", but in general, you don't want "Publishing House Awesome" to google an excerpt from your novel and see 37162 results come up.

What can you do?

When you go to the submissions page, you see a section that looks something like this:

Sharing Options Share features & links are encouraged  Edit

After you click edit, the option "Discourage and Viewable Only for deviantART Members" appears. If you chose this, the piece will not appear on search engines, nor will non-members be able to view it.

By limiting viewership, you're giving yourself space to workshop a poem or story without putting it "out there" completely. The more exclusive the arena where you share, the "safer" your piece is from nosy search engines. Simply removing a piece that was viewable by everyone may not be enough to erase its digital fingerprint from the internet; cached versions of the piece may remain for months, or even longer.

Other ways you can share on dA without posting:

Chatrooms! If you have a small prose excerpt or poem, join one of the many dAmn literature-oriented chatrooms. Many have regular critique nights and welcome feedback exchanges. You can copy-paste your piece directly into the chatroom (assuming it's not terribly large) without ever having to submit it to dA.

Groups and Individuals: There are a multitude of great critics and critique-oriented groups on deviantART. If you see someone whose writing you enjoy or who leaves the kind of feedback you'd love to get, send them a note asking if they'd be willing to take a look at an excerpt you'd send them. Most writers will be more than happy to do a comment or critique exchange.

Offer a small sampler: If you're looking to create interest or publicity in your work, or to invite some general criticism on a sampler, many publishers are willing to overlook a single chapter or excerpt being posted online, especially if you limit the viewership.

Another reason why you might want to limit viewership:

If you're working on an assignment, the piece will be submitted to a class. Many professors and even teachers use plagiarism checkers and will flag your piece if you had double-posted on deviantART.

Your professor/teacher WILL track you down. What follows is a real life story from a real deviantART member. Just yesterday, GwenavhyeurAnastasia's professor found her account.



[1/14/2011 4:43:28 PM] GwenavhyeurAnastasia: He sent me the email because he had put my piece you [Halatia] helped with into google, and someone had mentioned parts in a comment, so it came up on dA.
[1/14/2011 4:43:40 PM] GwenavhyeurAnastasia: and he thought I had stolen it, but he looked at my gallery and saw my picture.
[1/14/2011 4:43:43 PM] GwenavhyeurAnastasia: and was like. huh.
[1/14/2011 4:43:55 PM] GwenavhyeurAnastasia: apparently his wife and daughter are on it, and they both watch me.
...
[1/14/2011 4:44:47 PM] GwenavhyeurAnastasia: He asked why I put it on dA before I turned it in to him, and I said because I figured the class wouldn't give me any feedback on it, where dA would.

Don't let this happen to you. (Unless you want it to.)

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So in short, if you're considering publishing or using deviantART as a constructive springboard into the publishing world, these are a few things to keep in mind.

If you have any copyright, publishing, or professor stories or any comments about the article, share them here! And I hope you've enjoyed the literature part of projecteducate!

Till next year!