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I haven't read the contract, but I'll go out on a limb and speculate a bit. The article mentions "copyright assignment." This suggests to me that perhaps the co
by jarrett 15y ago
I haven't read the contract, but I'll go out on a limb and speculate a bit. The article mentions "copyright assignment." This suggests to me that perhaps the contract assigns copyright on all future reviews to the dentist. E.g. something along these lines:
"If you write a review of our services, the copyright on said review will be immediately assigned to us."
As the patient's lawyer notes, there's a good chance that fair use and unconscionability (two different doctrines) would render such a term unenforceable.
Again, this is just speculation based on a hint in the article.
- pavel_lishin 15y agoI wonder what happens if a) the hypothetical sentence carried legal weight, and b) I was then employed by someone who tasked me with writing reviews of said dentist for them. My employer would effectively have to go to court against the dentist to see who owns the words I type, right?
- eridius 15y agoIANAL, but I believe that if the copyright of the review is owned by your employer (since you wrote it for him), then you would not have the legal right to assign the copyright to your dentist, and therefore the copyright clearly remains with your employer.
- nkassis 15y agoBut from what I've read elsewhere assignment to your employer is not automatic for works for hire jobs. So it depends on your contract.
- kd0amg 15y agoI was under the impression that that was the definition of a "work for hire" situation (IANAL either).
- pavel_lishin 15y agoDoesn't the order of operations matter here? If I sign the paper and then get hired, does my new job suddenly invalidate my contract with the lawyer?
- rhizome 15y agoAnother funny thing about this is that assigning copyright to them would require yet another form.