New rights to consider

One of the big tussles in freelance journalism these days is over rights: who has copyright over an article; what media it can be used in, by whom and when; how much this all costs; and so on. It’s a long and complicated business with freelances on one side, wanting to be able to get the most money possible from their work, and publishers on the other, wanting to get as much for their money as they can.

Normally, the debate is over reprints, reuse on web sites, etc, but in this Web 2.0 world, there are new things to think about. I mention this in passing (since I’m not too fussed about it), but is anyone looking at the rights involved in having an article read out during a podcast?

I’ve recently had a tutorial in Practical Web Design on embedding Google Maps in web sites. And now, it’s pretty much been read out, introduction and all, on the PWD podcast. As mentioned, I’m not too fussed (although it would have been nice to have been credited), but has anyone been looking at the rights situations, because I think Web 2.0 is going to throw up a whole heap of interesting copyright questions?