Welsh Writer Makes long-list

30|07|08

There has never been a better time to be a budding writer in Wales, with the announcement today that another young, Welsh writer has made it on to the long-list for the £60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize. Bruce Burniston, Intellectual Property Specialist at John Collins and Partners LLP, explains how authors can protect their valuable work using copyright law, and how a simple novel could spark a multi million pound empire.

The Welsh literary world will undoubtedly be delighted to see that the long-list of the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize features XXXX XXXXX, a talented young Welsh writer. As many people will know, the last £60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize, a literary award with strong Welsh roots, sponsored by the University of Wales, was awarded to Rachel Tresize, who hails from Merthyr, beating entries received from English speaking countries across the globe.

Writing, creative or otherwise, is a unique skill, and as with any other talent authors must make sure they do everything in their power to protect themselves. The law of Copyright, which provides protection in most countries of the world, assists them in this. Basically, this law does exactly what it says on the tin.  It gives a legal right to prevent others from copying any literary work - it does not protect ideas, but the work of writing something down.  Copyright, in most countries, does not require registration, it arises automatically as soon as any literary work has been recorded

However, because copyright applies only to the work, and not to underlying ideas, this has given rise to some problems where someone has taken the general theme of a book, but has not copied the essence of the text.  It will be a question of fact and degree in each case whether or not writing about similar characters and themes will infringe copyright.  The copying must be "substantial" enough before the law will intervene. Two high profile cases - one still ongoing - exemplify this.

After Dan Brown published his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, two fellow authors took him to the London High Court in 2006, claiming that he stole "the whole architecture" of research that went into their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. In this case, the claim was unsuccessful as the court decided that all he had done was to take the general theme of their work - he had not copied anything they had written, In a separate case, J K Rowling is currently engaged in a court action in the USA to prevent publication of a Harry Potter Lexicon.  The outcome has not yet been decided, but this case differs from the Da Vinci Code because the Lexicon uses characters, themes and phrases from her books that she alone had created. Among other issues, Ms Rowling objects to the fact that much of the lexicon’s text had been taken directly from the Harry Potter books and then put into a simple A to Z format, with no quotation marks. We are now awaiting the verdict - the court’s decision is likely to provide welcome guidance for copyright owners on what amounts to "substantial" copying, where extracts from a work are used, but in a different format.

Authors should also keep in mind the commercial ‘Harry Potter effect’. In addition to making a lot of money from the novel itself, the book could be capable of being turned into a play, TV show or even, like the Harry Potter series, a large scale Hollywood movie. It may also spawn a whole industry of "character merchandising". Writers need to reserve these rights for future negotiations, since it is hard to know from the outset what they could potentially be worth - global sales of Harry Potter merchandising have been in the billions, further boosting JK Rowling’s already considerable fortune. 

There are numerous factors to consider when entering into a publishing agreement. The author needs to negotiate, amongst other things, where the book is to be sold and in which languages; the period during which the publisher will have the rights to the book; how much, in royalties, should be paid to the author and when – different payments may apply