Watch out for legal landmines in book content and design
Authors can avoid being sued for defamation by not making statements that injure a person’s or institution’s reputation. FILE
Copyright is that branch of intellectual property law that protects artistic and literally works. Musicians, entertainers and performers are some of the people who would be interested in copyright laws. Authors rights have been specifically provided for in the Copyright Act.
What are some of the legal issues to consider when you are writing a book? Other than the intellectual property, publishing a book has several other legal aspect which the author should consider.
First is the content. The author must take care that the book is not defamatory. This means the content must be true and correct. He must make sure that he does not write anything injurious to another person’s reputation. A person defamed can sue and win a handsome award.
The second landmine is hate speech or sedition. Publishing seditious material is a crime punishable by death. A number of books had been banned by previous regimes for carrying provocative messages.
An author has the power to create a revolution, but should ensure that whatever is written is within the law.
The new law on hate speech makes it an offence to publish materials with hate messages, for example tribalism, gender discrimination or racism.
It is however interesting to note that some bookshop still stock books with hate speech, for example gender discrimination.
Freedom to publish should be exercised with caution and with regard to other people’s rights.
Books should be published with consideration for the limits as contained in the Constitution. The title and cover are often what sell a a book. But both of them should be chosen with due regard to the law.
The design on the book should also be within the law. Avoid pornographic covers or ones that would provoke hatred. But I have not yet heard of an author being prosecuted for publishing a book that is seditious or bordering on hate speech.
The author should protect the title and the design through trademarks. As long as these are original and distinctive, they can be protected by means of a trademark. This will give the author the right to file infringement claims against another writer who comes up with a similar or identical book cover and title.
The author must also consider the type of publishing agreement he will have with publishers.
Some publishers maintain rights to the works and enter into a revenue- sharing agreement with the author. Others do the publishing for you at a fee and allow you to maintain all rights.
Whatever the case is, the author must clearly understand the publishing agreement before entering into any such deals with the publishers.
The author can consider joining one of the umbrella bodies for publishers. The advantage of these organisations is that they train members on their rights and also fight to safeguard them.
The last issue to consider is copyright. Section 32 of the Copyright Act gives the moral rights of the author. One such right is the privilege to claim authorship of the work and also the right to object to any distortion of the work which would injure his honour and reputation.
There are many other legal issues to consider, but these are the main ones.
