Friday 8 March 2019

POSTSCRIPT TO WORKING COLLABORATIVELY

So, having worked collaboratively with a fellow writer and done so without any agreement or contract, the collabrative work is then jointly owned. Publishing by one collaborative writer without the permission of the other is something that could happen - copyright law makes room for this. Copyright law makes sense in preventing one writer from holding another's work hostage.

But what if publishing the work would cause upset to one of the writers? Is it right then to go ahead and publish it anyway?

Copyright law makes no allowances for feelings. It tries to judge the cases generally and without sentiment. It tries to be fair - to all parties. Copyright law allows for one of the collaborative writers to publish without the other collaborative writer's permission so long as both writers have equal credit and equal division of any monies made from the publishing of the work.

However, I believe people should be people and should behave as people and show respect to each other. I have aproached a writer I collaborated with about publishing a work we both committed to. This writer's response indicates that publishing the work would be upsetting to them. It would be selfish of me then to go ahead and publish knowing that this would hurt the other writer. So I won't.

There is a cost to me in doing this - I so love the work and have invested hundreds of hours in the work and I believe others would really enjoy it and get something worthwhile out of it. It makes me sad that no one else will see the work. But there would also be a cost to publishing it - I do not like to hurt people, I am not that person, and I do not want that to be the price of publishing the work. 

So, sadly, I will not seek to publish the work.