Message 1: Why do most publishers use standard contracts?
Since the publishing contract is one of the most commonly used legal contracts by publishing houses, in order to facilitate operations and improve efficiency, publishing houses generally adopt the standard contracts (clauses) issued by the National Copyright Administration or drafted by the publishing house
Information 2: The rights and obligations of both parties in the publishing contract.
The publisher's rights mainly include exclusive publishing rights and exclusive rights of layout design. In general, publishers enjoy exclusive publication rights for a period of 10 years.
The main obligations of the publisher refer to the responsibility of doing or not doing certain acts in accordance with the provisions of the publishing contract, (what must be done or what is not necessarily done) The main items are: first, to pay remuneration to the copyright owner according to the contract or national laws, if there is an agreement in the contract, it shall be in accordance with the contract, if not, it can be according to the provisions of the state, but it can also be paid free of charge, depending on the actual agreement between the two parties. The second is the published quality and publication time of the agreed manuscript, which is divided into factual defects and rights defects. Factual defects refer to the incompleteness of the book work, such as the lack of title page information, references, etc., and the publishing contract generally stipulates that the author must deliver the manuscript "in order, clearly, and finally", that is, to meet the specifications of the printed version, and the right defect refers to whether the book work has rights defects such as infringement of others' copyrights, duplicate licenses, expired rights, multiple submissions of one manuscript, and violations of national interests and social public interests
The obligations of the copyright owner are mainly as follows: First, the work shall be delivered within the time limit agreed in the contract. Second, they must not infringe upon the copyright rights of others. Third, the exercise of its copyright shall not violate the Constitution and the law, and the rights of the copyright owner are mainly the copyright enjoyed by the work, including personal rights and property rights, and list 17 rights, such as the right of publication, the right of authorship, the right of reproduction, the right of distribution, etc.
Information 3: Legal effect of modification and termination of the publishing contract.
Due to the long performance time of the publishing contract, if the contract is terminated due to a change in either party, compensation shall be made in accordance with the contract, and even if there is no agreement, the beneficiary of the contract change shall also compensate the injured party.
This section focuses on the right of defense and the right of rescission in publishing contracts.
The right of defense means that after the conclusion of the publishing contract, the publisher has the right to prevent or refuse to continue to perform the publishing obligation under the legal conditions. If the copyright owner fails to deliver the manuscript to the publisher on time, and the timeliness of the book is strong, and the delay in publication has a greater impact on sales, the publisher may refuse to perform the publishing contract. For another example, if the manuscript provided by the copyright owner does not meet the requirements of "completeness, clarity and determination", the publisher may also refuse to perform the publishing contract.
The right of rescission means that after the conclusion of a valid contract, the publisher and the copyright owner may terminate the contract by consensus if it is difficult to achieve the purpose of the contract due to certain circumstances. At the time of signing the contract, the two parties stipulate the conditions for the publisher to terminate the contract, and the publisher may terminate the contract when the conditions for terminating the contract are established. The publisher may terminate the contract in the following cases: Failure to achieve the purpose of the contract due to force majeure;Before the delivery date, the copyright owner expressly indicates or indicates by his own actions that he will not fulfill the delivery obligation;The copyright owner delays the delivery of the manuscript and fails to deliver the manuscript within a reasonable period of time after being urged by the publisher.
In short, the purpose of establishing a publishing contract is to enable the copyright owner's knowledge to be legally disseminated, and the purpose of formatting the contract is to improve the efficiency of both partiesThe rights and obligations of both parties are to clearly divide the rights and responsibilities of the production and marketing of the book product, and the modification and termination of the contract are for the protection of the rights and interests of unexpected circumstances.