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Intellectual copyright regarding online Blog/magazine articles


alexmc
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Hello,

 

I'm looking for a little advice

 

With the usual disclaimers of not being actual legal advice etc. etc......

 

I wrote regular articles for an online blog,

took my own photographs,

wrote the pieces,

paid for my travel to and from the venues.

 

Generally the articles were always reviews, of food or entertainment.

 

Whilst the blog owner acted properly in disclaiming that reviewers were "guests of" etc.... and fulfilled all the GPRS reqs, and I did indeed receive perceived benefit through the eating, and consuming aspect,

I was never paid excepting for just one article, and that was unusual and a one off.

 

As a minor point, when I tot up on a very loose basis the monetary benefits I received versus the costs I incurred, I doubt very much that I was operating at anything like a profit.

Most likely a small loss.

 

Some reviews were excellent and the benefit far outweighed the travel and side costs, others were poor and disorganised and sometimes even cancelled on arrival, and a complete waste of my time and money(for which I was never reimbursed).

 

Having fallen out with the owner over certain issues, I realise that I do in fact have a body of work there, which I never signed any contract for regarding copyright etc. Neither was there even a verbal agreement that copyright would remain with the blog owner.

Given they were originally a friend, it was generally always, "do you want to do this review?"

 

given that I never agreed to, or signed away any of my intellectual copyright.....

... am I correct in assuming that I can re-use that work for my own ends?

 

Secondly, and a smaller point, and one I hope it doesn't come to but would like to know my rights regarding...

. can I request(demand) that my existing work be removed from the original blog?

 

The blog is UK based.

It was non-commercial in terms of advertising up until about 9 months ago whereafter adverts were applied.

 

From the point I contributed there were some paid articles or editorial, I received only one.

I did receive the benefit of meals, some beverages, and sometimes hotel accommodation.

I generally always paid my own travel and side costs, even with overseas travel or flights.

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I would say that the copyright belongs to you. Any assignment of copyright has to be in writing. It is perfectly possible to agree that the site may use your material but you retain the right to publish it elsewhere at the same time.

If there were no terms and conditions governing the application of your material on the blog then you probably can request its removal but enforcing that could be very difficult. Like most things, your rights are one thing – enforcement of those rights can be something completely different.

In terms of the paid material, once again you would have to look at the terms and conditions of the contract or if there was no written contract then you would have to do look at the circumstances to try and ascertain the implied terms and as to whether you were granting a certain time-limited or even perpetual licence to publish the material. Once again, it could get complicated.

I think the most important thing is whether you have transferred the copyright in your work and the answer is probably no. Is the work attributed to you? You have an attribution right

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No written agreement regarding copyright ever existed, no verbal agreements were ever made. All of the articles I wrote on the blog are attributed to me as the author of them. Whilst the blog owner maintains she "edits" the articles before publication, I've never seen any modifications to my work word-wise, other than perhaps correcting spelling I may have missed. 

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Then there is no information here which alters the advice that I have given in my earlier post.

 

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

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