by Claire Belilos, CHIC Hospitality Consulting Services

Apparently some of the people to whom one contributes an article or more to feature in a printed publication or on a website plan to produce such material from different contributors in CD Rom format (and sometimes in mass print format) to sell on a grand scale. Is this ethical? If you give an article or more to be featured on one web site or for one issue of a paper or newsletter, does this gives them the right to make big business out of your material and others' without making you share in the continuing profits?

One case I encountered was the national publication which I turned down. Another was a person doing a newsletter for "retail organizations" thereby leading people to think it was for an association, when it turned out to be a profit making newsletter to be sold in bulk across the country (like a booklet). I am encountering another today with a web site to whom I proposed my articles. They sent me a form to sign (????) giving them the right to publish all my articles in a CD Rom. I asked and they replied that "yes" they plan to sell the CD Rom as an info product. I suppose the other contributors did not ask.

How can the above be described? What is this new style of people who get things for nothing to feature in only one issue of a paper or on a web site make a whole business of it without having the info providers share in the revenue?

I would appreciate your comments. I suppose that with internet facility and the new technology one has to be extremely particular of where to place one's work. Moreover, I myself am now embarking upon the selling of my own info products (e.g. guidelines, manuals, reports, forms such as evaluation forms and job tools).

For related information, please read Nancy Roebke's article on Theft of Intellectual property. She provides a number of references for U.S. copyright information. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has a website at http://cipo.gc.ca/ and I'd also suggest a further link to Brad Templeton's "10 Big Myths About Copyright Myth Explained at http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Update by Claire Belilos A photographer, very much in the know with copyright issues wrote on a forum, in response to Claire's situation, that contributors of articles, like photographers, must specify when submitting an article that it is for one-time publication only, specifying where (e.g. "on your website called......") and specifying that it is not for sale or reproduction under any other form.

Copyright 1999 - All Rights Reserved by Claire Belilos. This article is not to be sold, uploaded, used for public viewing, reproduced or distributed in any form or manner without the author's written permission.

Claire Belilos specializes in employee training and development, employee motivation, supervisory coaching, Customer Service, and the design of job, training and evaluation tools. She created and moderates the Customer Service Viewpoints discussion forum at www.visitweb.com/customerservice and can be reached at:

Contact: Claire Belilos
Email: chic @ easytraining.com
Telephone: (604) 687-8442
Web site: http//www.easytraining.com
Mailing Address: #2007-1011 Beach Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V6E 1T8, Canada