A friend, tired of sending her articles to various newspapers, and suffering endless wait, decided to get her work published online. She discovered that there were many online avenues, where she could send her work. In fact, the possibilities were endless. The best part was that she could actually get paid—sometimes in a foreign currency! And the response that she got from her readers was also tremendously encouraging, so life seemed great, after all.

And then the bubble burst one day she discovered that a well-known online book store was selling an electronic book whose title seemed suspiciously similar to the title of one of her articles. On further inspection she found that not only did the title match, but the contents of the e-book matched our article as well. And, of course, it goes without saying that the e-book did not give her any credit at all.

Full of indignation, she decided to investigate and wrote emails of protest to the website where she had originally published her work. The reply that she got was extremely disappointing to say the least. The website owners very calmly informed her that they had every right to sell her work to a third party website since you - that is the writer—had agreed to their terms and conditions in the first place. So, whatever they did may be unethical, but totally legal. She could do nothing about it.

And this is something which can happen to you, too. If there is something that this account proves, it is that one
needs to exercise extra vigilance when writing for cyberspace.

The world of internet is full of such writing websites. Almost all of them are similar in their approach towards writers. They invite amateurs as well as experts to share their creative works by writing online. Most of them have the facility for commenting, which of course is a great attraction, because it ensures that the writer can interact directly with the readers. Then, there is the rating system, which indicates the popularity of the article, and, in some cases, determines how much the writer is paid.

But, if you actually read their terms and conditions, you will discover that by publishing anything on their websites, you give them the right to distribute it as and when they want — without ever informing you or giving you any royalties.

For instance, here is a clause from the terms and conditions from one of such websites. It has been reproduced here verbatim.

“By submitting your content to [website name], you grant [website name] (and any [website name] successors-in-interest, subsidiaries, or parent companies), a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive, sub-licensable right and license to, in whole or in part, with or without attribution to you, use, copy, modify, edit, adapt, publish, publicly display/perform, translate, display, create derivative works from and/or license and/or distribute content posted to the Site. [Website name]'s rights to content you submit include the right to make editorial revisions to your content; to use your name or pen name as author of your content; to use in any way the materials you submit on the [website name] website or in other [website name] media, whether now or hereafter created; to use for our own internal business purposes; and/or to reproduce and distribute the materials for [website name]'s marketing and publicity purposes.”

And, if you can actually believe it, the same document of terms and conditions will inform you, in bold typeface, that you retain all the rights to your published work. The very next paragraph goes on to say something entirely different.
Another writing website is less discreet. It informs its members that

“You retain ownership of your copyrights and other intellectual property and proprietary rights in any content you post to the site, subject to the non-exclusive rights that you grant to us as described in these terms.”

And then it goes on to broadly explain the 'non-exclusive rights' which you give to them which says that the writer grants the website a 'worldwide, royalty-free, freely transferable, freely sublicensable (through unlimited levels of sublicense), non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, transmit, distribute, publicly perform and display (including in each case by means of a digital audio transmission), and create derivative works of the Content, in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed.'

The website further asks the write to waive any moral rights that s/he may have in such content under the laws of any jurisdiction. The writer should appoint the website as his/her agent with full power to enter into and execute any document and/or do any act that the website may consider appropriate to confirm the grant of rights, consents, agreements, assignments and waivers put forward in these terms.

The bottom line is that we should be very careful before submitting work to these websites. If you come across a writing website which is offering to display your work and pay you as well without any strings attached, make sure to read their terms and conditions very thoroughly. Have someone look them over, if you are not sure yourself. If your work is good enough to be published as an electronic book, you are the one who should be doing the publishing and earn the royalties for it — not some random website. The lure of these websites may be great, but in the long run, they may not be as feasible.