Digital Rights

Author’s Bill of Digital Rights

1. Copyright legislation shall protect intellectual property and ensure appropriate compensation for rightsholders.

2. The publisher shall split the net proceeds of ebook sales at least equally with the author.

3. The author, when granting ebook rights to any publisher or producer, shall retain all electronic rights not specifically granted to that publisher or producer.

4. The author shall have approval of any abridgements, enrichments, or enhancements to the work.

5. The publisher shall not sublicense ebook publishing rights, whether in Canada or abroad, without the express permission of the author.

6. The publisher in its contract shall supplement the traditional “out-of-print” clause that usually triggers a rights reversion to the author with a sales volume requirement, and if for an ebook only, the contract shall be for a specified number of years with a sales volume requirement.

7. Continuing ebook sales by the publisher after a book is entirely out of print shall not prevent the reversion of both print and ebook rights to the author.

8. The Public Lending Right Commission shall seek additional monies to provide author payments for eligible ebooks.

9. Unless for archival purposes, libraries shall acquire digital copies of works in their collections only from rightsholders or their authorized distributors.

10. Ebook retailers shall require the rightsholder’s permission for any free preview or download of a work, and the rightsholder shall specify the maximum amount to be made available.

The Writers’ Union of Canada, 2012.

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