Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/471

 BUSINESS RELATIONS 439

or copies. It is often stipulated that on discontinu- ance, the author shall have the right to take over the plates at cost or half cost and remaining copies at cost, in default of which the publishers may sell copies free of royalty, — but not continue to use the plates. If the book contains illustrations not made originally for the work, the contract may provide that electro- types of them shall be transferred to the author for use solely in connection with the work in case of re- version of the copyright to him. The contract is usu- ally drawn subject to assignment by either party, but only as a whole; but the author may require that the work shall not be transferred, to another publisher or otherwise, without his consent.

The contract may also reserve to the author a right Other works to discontinue the agreement in case the publishers ofa«*or elect not to publish other works, which he may offer to them, or it may bind the author to offer subse- quent works to the same publishers. This keeps in view the ultimate publication of a uniform collected edition of the author's works, which may also be cov- ered by a provision giving the author right to include his work in a collected edition after a stated time.

The above summary gives the pith of a standard Standard form of contract which has been adopted, in more contract or less detail, by many American publishers, and is usually kept in printed form by them. Owing to the careful specifications in the American type of con- tract, there are fewer cases in the American than in the English court records referring to the relation be- tween authors and publishers; and the English "half profits" custom naturally leaves many more open questions of law and equity.

Where there are serial rights to be considered, as Serial rights in the case of a novel, the agreement between author and publisher should be very clear. If an author con-