Can someone steal my ideas from my published manuscript and not give me credit for it?

[kaysla]

My publisher has implied that he can have my work rewritten so that he does not have to pay me royalties. Basically, he can take my book or parts of it and claim it as his, just because it is in his words. He claims that ideas and the use of something in a particular way does not carry a copyright and can be used by him without giving any credit for the use of that work in the bibliography. Is he right?

[incuriam]

It's a shady issue. Ideas can't be copyrighted (they can be patented and some authors do this -- Alastair Reynolds is a good example) but if you have something written then you own the copyright by default. And just rewriting something always counts as plagiarism. You couldn't, for example, take the substance of what I have just written here, re-hash it and then pass it off as your own work just because you have used different words.

[ama]

I've not heard of this before, but some unscrupulous people will always be ready to try and take advantage. I would suggest that if you haven't already done so, send yourself a copy of the manuscript by either recorded or registered post as a matter of urgency. Make sure it is dated and that the envelope is never opened unless copyright is challenged and even then it should only be opened by a solicitor. My husband writes songs and he always does this as a matter of course.

Copyright begins as soon as the creative piece of work is completed. An alternative is to put a copy of the manuscript in an envelope and to hand it to your bank for safe keeping and have them sign to say the date that they received it. HTH.

[kaysla]

Thanks both for your replies. I probably was a bit shaky with my question (still in shock). It is a non-fiction book, which I have worked many years researching. I was between publishers when a small publisher asked me if he could publish a couple of chapters from it. I have now  found out that he also paraphrased some of it (in his own words) for a larger book he has published himself. This small publisher says that he often paraphrases other authors work from their published books and he does not have to give them any credit in the bibliography for doing so and he certainly does not have to pay them anything. Is this legal?

[Pinotage]

You cannot copyright ideas.

Unless you are very rich and have lots of time, you stand no chance, IMHO. If you are rich you could go to law and that might frighten them, but in the extremely unlikely  chance you win, will you even get your costs back - how much money does the publisher have.

Why not get professional advice from a writers organisation.

[LeMarchand]

I would have thought that you have a case, especially if you have any of his "tough luck" claim in writing. However, as Pinotage says, suing him will probably cost a lot for possibly little return.

If you have proof of his duplicity (and thus could defend any libel accusation he could make against you), you could try letting people know what a rip-off merchant this guy is! Maybe you could threaten him with this, and see what his response is. If all you want is a credit, it won't cost him much to insert it in later editions, or even to issue errata slips to correct the current edition.

However, I'm not a legal expert - that's just what I'd do.

[Scarlett]

If I were you I would send a copy of your work to yourself, registered, just in case he does re-write it. Then you can try to claim against him at a later date, should you want to.

[Hgrove]

Firstly, copyright starts running from the moment the book is published, so your best defence is to keep it confidential.  If you do have to show it to anyone, it is a good idea to get them to sign a confidentiality agreement.  Unfortunately, it sounds as if your book was not yet published when he "stole" part of it, so I suspect you are in a week position.  With copyright you have to distinguish between ownership of copyright and author's moral rights.  If you find a publisher, they may well ask you to assign your ownership of copyright to them in exchange for publishing your work.  (They do that to new, vulnerable authors).  In that case, it would be up to the publisher to defend the copyright if they see it fit.  They are probably better equipped with expertise in the field than a new author. If the "copycat" re-writes your story in his own words, he can probably get away with it.  However, if he reproduces a "substantial portion" of your book (e.g. a chapter) then the owner of copyright could sue him in copyright.  (Obviously bearing in mind costs, problems of proving it etc.)   Even if you have assigned the copyright to your publisher, you keep your author's moral rights which include, under sec. 80 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work.    You will probably notice on the inside cover of any book, the following sentence:  "the author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988."