Unique Content and My Name

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Drew
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:39 pm

Unique Content and My Name

Post by Drew »

Being new here, I'm not sure how this is supposed to work. I just sold my first article through CC as a "unique" license. As I understand, that means my name is supposed to stay with the article wherever it is used? I googled it and my name is NOT with the article...
This is somewhat of an important issue to me and part of why I look forward to writing here. I suppose the few extra dollars for the full license would be acceptable, but I'm actually hoping to sell more of the unique-s so I can get my name "out there" and get formal credit for my published writings, and have that as a verifiable credential for my resume.
Abbamay
Posts: 248
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:57 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by Abbamay »

I think you're supposed to contact CC to let them know, and they check up on it for you. Hopefully if I'm wrong the other forum members will jump in here and correct me.

Hope it works out for you.

Abba
EFowler
Posts: 83
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2013 5:24 am

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by EFowler »

Yep, contact CC and they should contact the buyer for you. It's happened twice to me, the first time they sorted it, the second time they didn't even respond to my emails. Good luck!
gators18
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:46 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by gators18 »

Unique is a one time only sale. That's why it's unique. The only difference between that and full is they can't make changes or remove your name.

I'm not sure if this is something you can DMCA for, but you're definitely within your rights to contact the site owner directly and insist that they comply with the licensing agreement.
PowerWriter
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2014 8:55 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by PowerWriter »

gators18 wrote:can't make changes or remove your name.
How do you make sure that your name is included when a customer buys an article from you? I saw someone say that you need to include your name by the title when you submit it, but I checked the guidelines and it says "Submissions must not include sig lines, bios, or author contact info" :?:
jak
Posts: 767
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:42 pm
Location: UK

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by jak »

I always start my articles with the title and my byline underneath. If you don't include your byline the customer can't use it, whatever rights they buy.
gators18
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:46 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by gators18 »

PowerWriter wrote:
gators18 wrote:can't make changes or remove your name.
How do you make sure that your name is included when a customer buys an article from you? I saw someone say that you need to include your name by the title when you submit it, but I checked the guidelines and it says "Submissions must not include sig lines, bios, or author contact info" :?:
Submit like this...

Code: Select all

The Fox
By PowerWriter

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
What they don't want is "PowerWriter is a dedicated animal writer with over 20 years of experience. When PowerWriter isn't writing, PowerWriter is canoeing."

Then you just need to search for your content on the web to make sure they complied with the license. For unique, it must be word for word exactly the same as what you put in CC's submission box.
PowerWriter
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2014 8:55 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by PowerWriter »

jak wrote:I always start my articles with the title and my byline underneath. If you don't include your byline the customer can't use it, whatever rights they buy.
Weird. I've had all of my articles accepted and sold without a byline. I'm not too worried since I've sold all of them so far for full rights. Should I take down the ones I have up and resubmit them with a byline?
PowerWriter
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2014 8:55 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by PowerWriter »

gators18 wrote:
PowerWriter wrote:
gators18 wrote:can't make changes or remove your name.
How do you make sure that your name is included when a customer buys an article from you? I saw someone say that you need to include your name by the title when you submit it, but I checked the guidelines and it says "Submissions must not include sig lines, bios, or author contact info" :?:
Submit like this...

Code: Select all

The Fox
By PowerWriter

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
What they don't want is "PowerWriter is a dedicated animal writer with over 20 years of experience. When PowerWriter isn't writing, PowerWriter is canoeing."

Then you just need to search for your content on the web to make sure they complied with the license. For unique, it must be word for word exactly the same as what you put in CC's submission box.
Thank you for your explanation!
Pellucidean
Posts: 87
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:17 pm

Re: Unique Content and My Name

Post by Pellucidean »

Thanks for the information Gators, that's very helpful. I wish CC would make clear that you can include a byline. Without it the option for selling for unique rights seems almost pointless. I've had one unique sale that was posted without my name, but now I see the buyer did nothing wrong… I'll be including a byline from now on, but I wish I'd known you could do that before now.
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