SIPA: You will be delivering a session at SIPA 2013 on Copyright for Publishers. What will you cover?
LESLEY: We’ll talk beyond the basics of copyright law, one of the biggest issues being ownership of content. What I saw [at the SIPA Marketing Conference] in Miami was a lot of questions on reuse and adaptation of content. It’s really important that companies own the rights to the content they use and adapt. Online has opened up obviously more opportunities for new content and reuse of content. Content is now regularly modified and adapted, and often used in a multimedia manner. Whatever content wasn’t and isn’t created in-house is not owned by SIPA members and needs to be licensed.
Sounds like an hour isn’t enough time.
We’ll try. Members also need to be careful when using third-party content. If you’re inserting a photo, image or table, and you don’t own the rights in it, you need to get permission. We’ll talk about when and how and hopefully make the process simple and clear.
I read this week that a person can be liable for an inflammatory retweet!
That may be going a bit far. We want to be retweeted—that’s the idea. That goes into the area of implied consent but let’s save that for the permissions talk in my session.
I saw in your bio that you were interested in copyrights early in your career.
One summer in law school I worked in a lobbying organization on copyright for publishers and authors and liked it right away. This was in Toronto. I was originally interested in copyright as a writer; most people never heard of the Internet back then, and there were only a handful of copyright lawyers in Toronto. I then started working for the Canadian government on revising the copyright laws—before my brief career change.
What was that?
I left government to go write screenplays in Los Angeles. I actually had a screenplay optioned. It was called Trouble in Bangkok and was about a writer whose fictional character comes to life and has an affair with him.
That sounds like a movie I saw last year called Ruby Sparks.
There aren’t many original ideas in Hollywood. The whole experience was a lot of fun; I was single and it was short-term. There’s a huge Canadian community out there. Some of them knew of me and put me in touch with the head of the Writers Guild of America. They hired me as a consultant and helped me with visas. Back then you needed a visa.
And that eventually led you back to Toronto?
I decided to move on and open a law practice in digital media. Always thought I would produce my own script but haven’t yet.
Yes, I’ve heard you’re a big fan of analytics.
Personally, I love everything digital. If possible, I would spend more time online. In fact, if I was starting out now in a career, I’m not sure I would pick law—even though I’ve had a great career in every way, writing books and traveling. Technology and laws change hand in hand over the decades. Going to school now, I might do something “more” digital and more creative.
You seem pretty digitally in tune now.
I’m lucky in all my teaching that I talk to people who follow my blog. I get a lot of feedback that way. Even though I look at my analytics every day or night, there’s more to it. You need to be intuitive, talk to your audience and see what other people are doing. And make sure you like what you do.
How do you get everything done?
I try to divide my work time between my copyright and new media law newsletter, teaching and writing books—the latter which I try to avoid. My last two books were edition updates: Licensing digital content for libraries and Canadian copyright laws. And I enjoy copyright consulting work in the U.S., Canada and globally.
How do you keep up with all that stuff?
Canada is a little easier. In the U.S. every time I read my Twitter feed, it seems something has changed. And then there’s the UK. If you’re not keeping up, you’re not going to have information to give. You share what you keep up on.
And speaking of keeping up, what keeps you up at night?
If anything, it’s a deadline by a book publisher. But especially since having children, I try to set all my deadlines way ahead of what I need. I hate being late.
What should people do if they want more copyright information from you?
I also give webinars and work with the major library associations. Those are open to everyone and concern publishers. In fact, I’ll be flying to San Diego right after my session here to teach two, full-day sessions on Copyright Management and Copyright Education at the Special Libraries Association Conference. We always get some editors and publishers there.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline