Rights on Edited Material

[bradpowell]

Dear Fiverr,



If I submit a screenplay I wrote (and have full copyrights over) to an editor on your site, and the editor sends back her corrections, then you maintain publicity rights on my screenplay and her comments? What exactly does that mean? Can you then display my screenplay anywhere you want to advertise your site?



Thanks.

[sincere18]

Are you having a problem with a buyer you are using?

[david388]

Hi @bradpowell,



From your profile, it looks like you’re a brand-new member, so welcome!



In terms of your question, @kjblynx is correct that you own the rights to the material. Furthermore, your Seller shouldn’t be posting that without your permission - or should at least be willing and gracious about taking it down. If not, you always hold the ability to change your review to a negative one to get their attention, but as a fellow Seller I’d treat that as a “going nuclear”-type option - it’s really damaging for us to have poor reviews here.



In the future, the best way to protect yourself up-front (and make your desires clear) would be by putting together a quick NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for the Seller to sign before you send over your material. It’s fairly quick and easy to throw these together from a cursory google search.



Hope this helps!

[bradpowell]

Thanks for responding and for the welcome!



No, I’m not having problems with a seller. I apologize my language was vague. I read in the TOS that Fiverr holds onto advertising/promotional rights on all works that pass through the website. I was asking what that means.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @david388: This is just a “sideline comment” since I have seen this mentioned before. Quite a few sellers would absolutely refuse to sign the type of non-disclosure agreement used by brick and mortar companies dealing with others of the same type. One solid reason for that is that Fiverr does not require sellers to disclose their real names to buyers unless they want to and disclosing personal details is discouraged. Fiverr being a global site also means that legal precedents are different from those followed in individual countries.



Buyers can ask for a signature on a legal document, of course, but it would be difficult to be certain that the signature was real. Legal issues are a tricky thing on a site like this. I’m not disagreeing with your comment but just adding my two cents!

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @bradpowell: Fiverr staff almost never sees what is on the forum. They pop in on occasion and someone probably reviews the Suggestion Box forum sometimes. Most of the forums are just for sellers and buyers talking about things. If you want to ask staff something you probably want to go to www.fiverr.com/support.

[sincere18]

Reply to @bradpowell: What that usually means is that any work done through the site, Fiverr can use it for advertising. So for example let’s say you are a graphic designer and do logos, Fiverr could make some advertisements the are paying to run on other sites somewhere and they can technically use anything created through the site, for the design of their ad.

[fastcopywriter]

Reply to @kjblynx: True, but if you hire a short story writer (example: erotic writer) and she tells you that unless you pay the $5 book rights gig extra, she will not give you a peace of paper guaranteeing that she won’t publish the work elsewhere, you’re better off paying.

[itsyourthing]

I wouldn’t allow anyone on Fiverr to have access to any of my intellectual property that I cared about.



As it’s been mentioned, it’s an international marketplace and there are no real protections in place. For something as potentially important as a screenplay, you’d be far better off only working with someone whose identity you can absolutely verify and who you know to be able to sign a legally binding document.

[sincere18]

Reply to @itsyourthing: I agree. And it’s personally something I can’t quite understand, sending very valuable intellectual property to someone who you do not even know who they really are at all or would not have any type of signed contract. I am guessing that many people that are non-professionals in various areas may not even know there are issues or how that stuff works, that’s just my guess about it.

[itsyourthing]

Reply to @sincere18: Yeah, I agree. A good bit of the time people do things without really thinking them through. Of course, they just may not care that much depending on what they intend for the end product.