What exactly does copyright cover?

[tmthesaurus]

Hi, I'm a linguist and hobbyist conlanger. I have a map of some empty landmasses I made in Illustrator, but I don't feel knowledgeable enough to define anything more specific than that. If I were to commission someone to fill in all the natural details (e.g. rivers, mountains, biomes), who would own the rights to what? The commissioned artist would presumably own the rights to the map itself, but would she also own the idea of island X being a lush rainforest or a mountain range on continent Y? What if I wanted to commission additional maps in the future? What if I later decide that I'd like to write a novel in this setting? What does copyright cover by default, and what options would be fair for everyone involved?

[Redrobes]

You own the copyright to the original creative content of your work. So if you drew the outline of the shapes of the land then thats the bit you own copyright to. When you commission and artist then they would own the copyright to all the bits they draw on your maps land mass. You can assign copyright rights to someone so when getting a commission done you can ask for the copyright to the final map. However this generally means that if the artist uses premade stamps and icons and other bits they have previously drawn or reused then now they cant use them any more. Consequently, some artists do not sell copyright and others charge a lot more for it because maybe every single pen stroke will now have to be unique for your map. Also without some copyright ownership or license, the artist cant even show the map as part of their portfolio.

Original creative content means that it basically has to have not existed in the past. A generic island of rainforest is not a copyrightable thing. The specific shape of your island might be but the fact that its a rainforest is not.

You do get copyright by default in most countries in the world - all that I can think of. You do not need to register it but at the end of the day you only really have rights to whatever you can defend in court. So you would have to be prepared to pay legal fees to defend it and also must prove that its your own and original. If you can find a similar looking island from somewhere else which was created prior to yours then maybe all of a sudden, your island shape is now owned by that previously discovered map maker or that its now public domain. During copyright court cases, people look for "prior art".

Public domain is where it is basically not copyright any more. This could be because the time limit has run out - which is about 75 years. So most stuff prior to 1920's is copy right free. Also, you can dismiss your own rights and declare something public domain when you dont want to care about it. The issues with declaration is that now that you have no claim to it someone less ethical else might say they claim it and put up the money to defend it. As a consequence many people go for the inbetween state of keeping the copyright but licensing the work under a creative commons license.

If you own copyright on a work or bit of art you are free to license it in any way you want to. If you say "All rights reserved" then it means that nobody else has the right to copy it. If you put a creative commons license on it then its stating that your giving an automatic permission to make some form of copying without the copier needing to individually ask for your permission. There are a range of options with a creative commons and you will see tags like CC-BY-SA etc which means you have to attribute it and all further copies need to be licensed in the same way. Its a little complicated but its a great way of allowing people to use your work without having to get into any licensing discussions.

If you want to write a novel in a land mapped by someone else then you are free to do so. Copyright covers the original artistic work. A new artistic work which is substantially different is not covered by it. However if you were to make a second map of the first one which included substantial aspects of the first which was copyright then you are creating a derivative work based on the original which is then considered a copy. The aspects of your new map copied from the original of which were copyright is an infrigement.

My personal feelings about it is that if your wanting to create a book then start from scratch and do all the work yourself. And if you commission a map for it then pay the extra money and buy the copyright for it and dont use bits of any other work in the book.

Although there are always going to be people who compare books like Lord of the Rings with Harry Potter, they are not the same and share no substantial aspects of each other. The main wizard having a beard is not enough. Its difficult to be truely original where there are not even vague aspects which are similar but it is not hard to be substantively different to avoid the possibility of copyright claims.

Hope that helps.

[waldronate]

If you're in the USA, be sure to become familiar with the term "work for hire". If you're not in the USA, find out any local equivalent to that term. In any case, be sure to have a solid agreement (in writing) with the person you commission about who has which rights to the end product before starting anything.

[Gamerprinter]

Hi, I'm a linguist and hobbyist conlanger. I have a map of some empty landmasses I made in Illustrator, but I don't feel knowledgeable enough to define anything more specific than that. If I were to commission someone to fill in all the natural details (e.g. rivers, mountains, biomes), who would own the rights to what? The commissioned artist would presumably own the rights to the map itself, but would she also own the idea of island X being a lush rainforest or a mountain range on continent Y? What if I wanted to commission additional maps in the future? What if I later decide that I'd like to write a novel in this setting? What does copyright cover by default, and what options would be fair for everyone involved?

So is this something you intend to publish yourself, or is it a project that will be published by somebody else? Now if you commission a cartographer to create the interior of your landshape, unless you pay for the "ownership" to fully own the copyright, what is the problem of the artist retaining copyright? The artist doesn't own the story that the map facilitates, nor presumably the labeled locations on the map, as those are content from your story as well. Allowing the artist to retain copyright after a year from publication is pretty common in the industry - among those publishers I still create maps on commission are under that agreement. Still, I cannot publish the map separately for a different story, for a different novel, for a different author. So what is the problem with allowing the artist to retain copyright? It won't affect ownership of your product, that remains yours.

For the most part, I'm done as freelance cartographer, though I have been one for almost 15 years. You might notice the title under my account name as "publisher". I became that in 2010, but back then, I was just releasing standalone map products usable in any RPG game, not for a specific story or adventure - taverns, castles, that kind of thing. However, I also published a Japanese horror setting, as an imprint under Rite Publishing - 15 guides, supplements and modules. Now I publish supplements and modules for Starfinder RPG, and I do so for 3 authors, besides myself.

Most publishers begin as author/game designers, not illustrators. However, that's how I got into the industry. As a small publisher now, I still create all my maps, but I also create all my own illustrations for all my products. The next thread following this one, right now, shows the 3D work I've been doing. I do my own art, because, as a small publisher, I don't really have an art budget. So if I want art in my publications, I do it myself. While my professional cartography is well known, I'm just now getting better at 3D.

I'm describing all this, because part of the reason, I create my own art, is to retain full copyright of everything I publish, and not worry about other's ownership in my products. With my author/game designers. whom I publish for, I split profits with them, and they retain authorship of the work, but I own the copyright. As artist/cartographer, I fully own the copyright of that too. That's my advantage being a publisher, with competent artistic ability. While I'm not "rich", I am successful, and have a big advantage over my peers among the publishing industry, because I create my own art. My only cost is time and effort, but I can include a dozen maps in a product, whereas most publishers cannot afford that.

GP