Know Your Article Usage Rights

When you submit an article to a website or magazine on a freelance basis, you might be asked to sign a contract afterwards. Or you might be asked to sign a contract if you join a website for more regular article submissions.

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Such contracts are legally binding agreements that typically define intellectual property rights (ownership) and compensation terms for articles published. There are a variety of article usage rights that contracts can set, which is one of the most important things to check in any contractual document before signing it.

Copyright grants the creator of any original article content exclusive rights for its usage and distribution. The legal copyright for an article is automatically set when you’ve completed its draft. Thus, there is no requirement to register your articles for copyright because you automatically become the first copyright owner.

However, legally binding contracts can transfer article rights from the copyright owner to a website or magazine upon signing. Or they can at least restrict your article usage rights for submitting content in various ways. A publisher can potentially sue an author for knowingly or unknowingly breaching article usage rights agreed in a contract. So, it’s important for freelancers to be clear about what exactly the different article usage rights mean when reading contracts before signing them. These are the article usage rights typically set within contracts.

First Serial Rights is one of the less restrictive agreements that grants a website or magazine the right to be the first to publish an article. Thus, you still retain a right to submit an article elsewhere when signing a contract with first serial rights in it. However, such an agreement restricts you to submitting articles to alternative publications that don’t request First Serial Rights.

The Writer’s Digest contract for articles is effectively First Serial Rights, specified as first world editorial rights. That allows for Writer’s Digest to be the first to publish your article anywhere in the world. Some first serial rights agreements might be restricted to more specific geographical areas, such as North America or Europe.

Writer’s Digest also sets a 60-day exclusivity period for first rights in its contract. Submitting an article to an alternative site or magazine within 60 days of its inclusion on Writer’s Digest would breach that agreement. So, check for additional contractual clauses like that when reviewing contracts.

Second Serial Rights grants a publication a right to republish an article that has already appeared in one alternative magazine or website. So, this is a contract term to look for if your article has been previously published. Publications typically offer lower remuneration for articles with Second Serial Right usage. Note that submitting an article not previously published with a Second Serial Rights agreement set would contradict the contract’s terms.

Work for hire effectively grants the full intellectual property rights of a submitted article to the publisher (or hiring party). A work-for-hire contract defines that contributors submit articles on an employee basis. It is a common term in U.S. contracts that means you, the author, give up all ownership of an article submitted and cannot resubmit it elsewhere. If you sign a contract that sets a work-for-hire right, you agree that the hiring party is considered the author.

The All Rights contract term is pretty much what it sounds like, and is much the same as work for hire. This means you agree to sell full copyright for the article to the publisher, giving up all rights to submit it elsewhere. However, unlike work for hire, an All Rights contract might include a termination clause for reclaiming article rights after many years.

One-Time Rights means you permit the publication to include your article on a website or magazine just once, without any first or secondary designation. This is a non-exclusive right to run any piece, and you’ll retain the copyright to any article submitted on a one-time basis. It is a usage right that enables you to resubmit one published article to any number of alternative magazines or websites.

Many contracts specify Electronic Rights to distinguish between the print and digital publication mediums. If you’re presented with a contract for an article submitted to a website, it will likely include some form of electronic (digital) usage agreement. Electronic Rights grants permission to publish an article on digital media, such as websites, newsletters, and presentations.

Note that Electronic Rights can vary in scope and context. A contract might specify first, second, one-time, or all electronic (digital) usage rights for an article. So, check the fine print in contracts for what kind of Electronic Rights you’re granting for publication of an article.

Exclusive and non-exclusive are more black-and-white article right agreements than the others specified above. Signing a contract with Exclusive Rights specified for an article typically forbids you from submitting the same content to alternative publications. However, such exclusive agreements can have time frames ranging from a few months to years, which come into effect from the date a contract is established. You are free to submit an article elsewhere when the exclusivity timeframe set in a publisher contract expires.

A non-exclusive contractual agreement grants a publisher permission to publish your article. You retain a right to submit the article elsewhere on a non-exclusive basis. However, you cannot submit an article published non-exclusively to another publisher on an exclusive basis. You should inform any potential secondary publisher that your article has been non-exclusively published elsewhere if a contract is presented that sets exclusive rights.

Not all magazines and website publications establish formal contracts for articles they include from freelance contributors. Note that you do not lose any rights to an article just because a website or magazine pays to publish it. If an article is published with the author's permission without any contractual agreement, you retain full copyright ownership of the piece.

So, an article submitted to and included on a website or in a magazine without any established contract is technically published on a non-exclusive basis. You permit the magazine or website to include an article without transferring any kind of rights to it. Without any legally binding contractual agreements, you retain an unrestricted right to submit the article elsewhere.

However, it’s all the more important to check remuneration (pay) terms for articles submitted without established contracts. Make sure you ask the publisher what they’re prepared to offer for articles before or directly after submitting them to prevent potential misunderstandings. Alternatively, ask for any submission guidelines that might specify article rates. A website or magazine is legally obliged to pay remuneration for articles published based on informal (non-contractual) agreements, but you need proof of agreements established.

If you have no intention of submitting single articles to multiple publications, it’s not necessarily that important to carefully check the article usage rights outlined above. However, authors who want to submit single articles to multiple magazines or websites should review rights agreements in contracts to avoid potential breaches. Make sure you print (or at least keep a record of) contracts established with websites or magazines so you can check their rights agreements before submitting articles to more than one digital or printed publication.