Caution Fanfic Writers: What do Amazon's Kindle Worlds terms mean for you and your stories?
Caution, Fanfic Writers!
Amazon has recently launched Kindle Worlds, a publishing service for fanfiction in certain licensed fandoms. If your fandom is included, you could earn a small percentage off of the legal sale of your fanfic, but by participating, you are entering a legally binding agreement with Kindle Worlds. Because fanfic writers aren't automatically experts in contracts terms and copyright, I wanted to highlight some of the contract terms for discussion.
Please, help spread the word. Read this post, study the contract for yourself, and think about what the extensive rights granted by this program mean for fanfiction. For your story, and for every story that's ever glued you to the screen. If there's any part of this you want that author to know, PLEASE, link or help spread the word.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, and this post should not be construed as legal advice. Whatever actions you choose to take are your own. I am advocating caution and bringing attention to terms that concern me, not recommending a course of action for anyone else.
CONTRACT TERMS:
Quotations are from the KW Publishing Agreement, quoted as is.
No Reversion
When your Work is made available through KW, it belongs to Amazon Kindle Worlds, and no rights will ever revert to you.
Exclusive License to your Work
Your Work is now exclusive to Amazon Kindle Worlds. Specifically, by participating, you are granting "the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform and transmit your Work, in whole and in part, in each country in the world, in all languages and formats, and by all means now known or later developed, and the right to prepare derivative works of your Work."
The full term of copyright protection in most parts of the world is the author's lifetime plus 50-70 years. That's right, your fanfic belongs to Amazon for the rest of your life, plus most likely your children and grandchildren.
With the terms here, that includes every translation, every format, and every format that hasn't yet been invented. Every most importantly, derivative work as well. What's a derivative work? That's complicated, and again, I'm not a lawyer. But basically, Kindle Worlds owns every version of your story you will ever create - edited, rewritten, expanded, transformed, podcast, illustrated, filmed etc. Your story takes off, and you decide to rewrite it into original characters/world and write the next 50 Shades of Grey? - Congratulations, Amazon loves you to death, because you don't own that story, they do.
If you've been much aware of the transformative arguments for fanfiction, I can heat you arguing that derivative works are protected, if originality and transformation can be shown. Excellent, I agree with you, but not if you've just signed a contract that specifically grants those rights to someone else.
Exclusive License to all New Elements in Your Work
You're also granting Kindle Worlds the exclusive use of all new elements, including "original characters, scenes and events." Love the roommate that you made up to fill in a gap in the college years and decide to use him in your own original story? Nope, he belongs to Amazon now.
A fellow fanfic writer asks you if they can use him in a story? Nope, not unless Amazon allows it. "You may not, and may not authorize any other party to, develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform, prepare derivative works of, or transmit your Work, in whole or in part, or any work containing any of the New Elements, except with our prior consent." Within Kindle Worlds, your character is now "available for unrestricted use by [Amazon] without any additional compensation, notification or attribution." In laymen's terms, you will not be paid, you will not be informed, and you will not be acknowledged.
And a clarification, for those used to the collaborative community of fandom: your Work may not be available "on other sites, including your blog or website, even if free" once it's been submitted to KW. So understand that you are choosing between participation in general fandom and participating in Kindle Worlds, because you won't be able to do both.
Sublicenses and Rights
They can sell off any of the rights you've given them to whoever they want, and you have no say in the matter.
And now let's give away everything you might have left
There's a ton of legalese at the end of the contract, which is too dense to detail individually here. Hopefully, I've already given enough to make you hesitate before joining. In case you're still on the fence, here's a few highlights, but read the publishing agreement yourself to see just what you'd be agreeing to.
- "We reserve the right to cease publication or remove the availability of your Work at any time for any or no reason."
- "We may reformat and make changes to your Work based on copyediting your Work for punctuation, spelling and usage."
- "We may modify or discontinue Kindle Worlds or any service we provide at any time in our sole discretion."
- "We have no obligation to market, distribute, or offer for sale your Work, or to continuing marketing, distributing or selling your Work after we have started doing so. We may remove your Work from the Program and cease further exploitation at any time in our sole discretion without notice to you."
- "It may be helpful for us to have physical signed versions of this Agreement or other documents. You agree to sign and deliver to us any further documents that we may reasonably request to confirm your grant of rights to us ... If you do not complete and return any such Additional Documents within 30 days after we request them, you agree that we can sign the Additional Documents on your behalf and, to make your agreement legally enforceable, you hereby irrevocably appoint us as your attorney-in-fact with full power to execute, acknowledge and deliver the Additional Documents as required to confirm our rights."
- "All rights granted to Amazon under this Agreement are irrevocably vested. No breach by Amazon of this Agreement will entitle you to equitable relief, whether injunctive or otherwise, against or with respect to your Work or any other works produced pursuant to the rights granted under this Agreement or their exploitation."
Read the full Kindle Worlds publishing agreement for yourself.
CONCLUSION:
If any of the points I've raised concern you, please spread the word. I'm not active in any of the fandoms currently covered by Kindle Worlds, and not really that active at all right now, so this won't go anywhere without your help. Read, study the contract for yourself, and think about what the extensive rights granted by this program mean. If there's any part of this you want your fellow fanfic writers to know before participating, PLEASE, link or help spread the word.
I'm screening only anon comments for now, but please keep the discussion serious and respectful (whether the opinions stated agree or disagree). If it turns into flame wars, I'll manually unscreen instead.
Link at will. Repost at will (other platforms fine too).
Amazon has recently launched Kindle Worlds, a publishing service for fanfiction in certain licensed fandoms. If your fandom is included, you could earn a small percentage off of the legal sale of your fanfic, but by participating, you are entering a legally binding agreement with Kindle Worlds. Because fanfic writers aren't automatically experts in contracts terms and copyright, I wanted to highlight some of the contract terms for discussion.
Please, help spread the word. Read this post, study the contract for yourself, and think about what the extensive rights granted by this program mean for fanfiction. For your story, and for every story that's ever glued you to the screen. If there's any part of this you want that author to know, PLEASE, link or help spread the word.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, and this post should not be construed as legal advice. Whatever actions you choose to take are your own. I am advocating caution and bringing attention to terms that concern me, not recommending a course of action for anyone else.
CONTRACT TERMS:
Quotations are from the KW Publishing Agreement, quoted as is.
When your Work is made available through KW, it belongs to Amazon Kindle Worlds, and no rights will ever revert to you.
Your Work is now exclusive to Amazon Kindle Worlds. Specifically, by participating, you are granting "the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform and transmit your Work, in whole and in part, in each country in the world, in all languages and formats, and by all means now known or later developed, and the right to prepare derivative works of your Work."
The full term of copyright protection in most parts of the world is the author's lifetime plus 50-70 years. That's right, your fanfic belongs to Amazon for the rest of your life, plus most likely your children and grandchildren.
With the terms here, that includes every translation, every format, and every format that hasn't yet been invented. Every most importantly, derivative work as well. What's a derivative work? That's complicated, and again, I'm not a lawyer. But basically, Kindle Worlds owns every version of your story you will ever create - edited, rewritten, expanded, transformed, podcast, illustrated, filmed etc. Your story takes off, and you decide to rewrite it into original characters/world and write the next 50 Shades of Grey? - Congratulations, Amazon loves you to death, because you don't own that story, they do.
If you've been much aware of the transformative arguments for fanfiction, I can heat you arguing that derivative works are protected, if originality and transformation can be shown. Excellent, I agree with you, but not if you've just signed a contract that specifically grants those rights to someone else.
You're also granting Kindle Worlds the exclusive use of all new elements, including "original characters, scenes and events." Love the roommate that you made up to fill in a gap in the college years and decide to use him in your own original story? Nope, he belongs to Amazon now.
A fellow fanfic writer asks you if they can use him in a story? Nope, not unless Amazon allows it. "You may not, and may not authorize any other party to, develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform, prepare derivative works of, or transmit your Work, in whole or in part, or any work containing any of the New Elements, except with our prior consent." Within Kindle Worlds, your character is now "available for unrestricted use by [Amazon] without any additional compensation, notification or attribution." In laymen's terms, you will not be paid, you will not be informed, and you will not be acknowledged.
And a clarification, for those used to the collaborative community of fandom: your Work may not be available "on other sites, including your blog or website, even if free" once it's been submitted to KW. So understand that you are choosing between participation in general fandom and participating in Kindle Worlds, because you won't be able to do both.
They can sell off any of the rights you've given them to whoever they want, and you have no say in the matter.
There's a ton of legalese at the end of the contract, which is too dense to detail individually here. Hopefully, I've already given enough to make you hesitate before joining. In case you're still on the fence, here's a few highlights, but read the publishing agreement yourself to see just what you'd be agreeing to.
- "We reserve the right to cease publication or remove the availability of your Work at any time for any or no reason."
- "We may reformat and make changes to your Work based on copyediting your Work for punctuation, spelling and usage."
- "We may modify or discontinue Kindle Worlds or any service we provide at any time in our sole discretion."
- "We have no obligation to market, distribute, or offer for sale your Work, or to continuing marketing, distributing or selling your Work after we have started doing so. We may remove your Work from the Program and cease further exploitation at any time in our sole discretion without notice to you."
- "It may be helpful for us to have physical signed versions of this Agreement or other documents. You agree to sign and deliver to us any further documents that we may reasonably request to confirm your grant of rights to us ... If you do not complete and return any such Additional Documents within 30 days after we request them, you agree that we can sign the Additional Documents on your behalf and, to make your agreement legally enforceable, you hereby irrevocably appoint us as your attorney-in-fact with full power to execute, acknowledge and deliver the Additional Documents as required to confirm our rights."
- "All rights granted to Amazon under this Agreement are irrevocably vested. No breach by Amazon of this Agreement will entitle you to equitable relief, whether injunctive or otherwise, against or with respect to your Work or any other works produced pursuant to the rights granted under this Agreement or their exploitation."
Read the full Kindle Worlds publishing agreement for yourself.
CONCLUSION:
If any of the points I've raised concern you, please spread the word. I'm not active in any of the fandoms currently covered by Kindle Worlds, and not really that active at all right now, so this won't go anywhere without your help. Read, study the contract for yourself, and think about what the extensive rights granted by this program mean. If there's any part of this you want your fellow fanfic writers to know before participating, PLEASE, link or help spread the word.
I'm screening only anon comments for now, but please keep the discussion serious and respectful (whether the opinions stated agree or disagree). If it turns into flame wars, I'll manually unscreen instead.
Link at will. Repost at will (other platforms fine too).