That would be okay so long as the author/copyright holder gives express permission to put it online (and the site should be able to prove just that). If he/she has not given permission, then it is illegal because someone is not paying the author for his or her own intellectual property. That would be theft. In one sense it would be no different than if you had written a novel, someone stole it and published it, and that thief gets all the money from the sales. You're left with nothing, even though you thought up the idea and took the trouble to write it. There may be some unknown authors who give permission just to get their work out there, so that when they write more novels (if people enjoyed the first novel) those same people may buy the next - and recommend that author. However, I can't see much benefit to established authors. (Most of them would have their own sites, anyway. If they wanted to offer free stories, they would probably put it on their own sites.)
anonymous
2016-04-10 23:05:29 UTC
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Your keywords are "If an AUTHOR writes a book and decides to put the whole thing online"-- the author is usually the one who controls what use is made of the copyright so if the AUTHOR decided to put it online it is all right. The only caveat is if the author has signed a contract with a book company which gives the company certain publishing rights that would conflict with free ebook publishing. People who are NOT authors who post books online can be sued, even if the book is out of print. One of the early cases I recall had Harlan Ellison suing an internet provider for allowing someone to post the contents of four of his stories in a newsgroup. From wikipedia, under "Harlan Ellison" alt.binaries.e-book lawsuit Ellison again came into the public eye with his April 24, 2000 lawsuit against Stephen Robertson for posting four of his stories to the newsgroup "alt.binaries.e-book" without authorization. Included as defendants in the lawsuit were AOL and RemarQ, internet service providers whose only involvement was running Usenet servers carrying the group in question, who Ellison claimed had failed to stop the alleged copyright infringement in accordance with the "Notice and Takedown Procedure" outlined in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Robertson and RemarQ settled the lawsuit with Ellison, though he pressed on with his suit against AOL. The AOL suit was settled in June 2004 under conditions that were not made public. Other posted stories and books have been hit with "Cease and Desist" notices if they infringe on another's copyright. I can think of a couple of short stories/novellas that have been removed recently for infringement.
anonymous
2006-12-22 21:14:54 UTC
It's a graphic novel....in other words a comic book. The DVD's out though.
probablestars
2006-12-22 11:26:35 UTC
I am not sure that you can - you know it's a graphic novel, right?
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