Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Publishing a book

Yes. You should get signed copyright releases before you start investing your time in creating any sort of book. It is always easier to get the release when you are starting than waiting until later on in the process. Please feel free to contact my office if we can be of any assistance in this matter.

Re: Publishing a book

While I agree with Christopher's answer, it can be a bit complicated if any of the "certain people" have already published their work. Usually, a publisher will seek anthology rights as part of a grant so if you're seeking the right to publish you may also need the approval of the publisher, which might be diffuclt to obtain. Start with a letter of inquiry stating your interest and requesting whether anthology rights are available. Then, if the author is interested and anthology rights are controlled by the author you can undertake the step recommended in the previous answer. If the anthology rights are not available but the author is interested, you might ask the author to send a letter you can take to the publisher in order to get the publisher's release.

Re: Publishing a book

These are all good answers. I guess you now realize how important it is to get an attorney you can work with for this project to help you ensure that you don't waste your time.

Re: Publishing a book

I agree with both answers you've gotten previously, but further point out that copyright is protected geographically. Thus, if you're publishing your book outside of the USA, you will need rights in each country in which you publish. Getting a transfer agreement for "first worldwide anthology rights" from from either a publisher or an individual author should do the trick.

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