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Elance. Do you own the content written for you?
xenopus
Posts: 98
Joined: 09 Apr 09
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01 Jun 09 2:04 pm

Elance. Do you own the content written for you?

Don't know if this is a dumb question but it just popped in my mind:

When having someone from Elance (but could as well be anywhere else I suppose) (re)writing articles for you. Does the copyright of those articles automatically belong to you or do you have to make this specically clear in the proposal??
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PremiumMember
revimp
Posts: 240
Joined: 29 Jun 06
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02 Jun 09 3:38 am

 you own it.you can do with it as you please, you can say you wrote it or assign a pen name as the author.
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chestina
Posts: 5
Joined: 30 Apr 09
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02 Jun 09 5:02 pm

 Xenopus,

That's actually a very good question! I use Elance for all my articles and the articles are yours do to what you wish. I have never put in my proposals that I wanted the copyrights, however I did contact Elance and this is what they said,

Chestina, Jun 01 07:43 pm:
If I hire someone to write a few articles for me to go on a website do I have the copyrights to those articles or do I need to specify that in the proposal?

Vasim, Jun 02 07:41 am:
Hello Chestina,

Thank you for contacting Elance.

I suggest that you state that in your job description to prevent mis-communication.

I hope this information is useful. If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Regards,
Vasim
Customer Support
Elance
www.elance.com/help

Hope this helps!

Chestina
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sonitin
Posts: 152
Joined: 26 Apr 07
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02 Jun 09 6:09 pm

 When starting a project with your selected provider, you are given a chance to put in your terms for acceptance by the provider. The best way is to put a word document highlighting all conditions and attach it along with terms. Also, you can post a standard 'work for hire' contract. If the provider accepts it then he loses all rights to the work in lieu of the payment received.
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xenopus
Posts: 98
Joined: 09 Apr 09
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02 Jun 09 6:51 pm

 Thanks for the response peope. I guess it's a good idea to put it in the proposal indeed. Better be save than sorry. ;)
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PremiumMember
robbom
Posts: 2
Joined: 09 Apr 09
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03 Jun 09 7:23 pm

 You get what you pay for. Elance, rent-a-coder,odesk for articles . Most have a standard wording that is your byline, your placements when you pay the writer for their services. No residuals, copywrite. You should have All Rights Reserved to you.

Best

Rob
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PremiumMember
aliasmrjones
Posts: 33
Joined: 21 Apr 09
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10 Jun 10 10:45 pm

 I always put in the project description and in the terms when finalizing the job that I will retain ownership and all rights to the content produced.

I think most writers on elance assume this, but you might as well explicitly state it.

I do this with articles, website design, videos...all content that I outsource through elance.
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PremiumMember
jmpruitt
Posts: 3918
Joined: 19 Jun 09
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11 Jun 10 2:51 am

 as a freelance writer, I always tell my clients, upon final payment, they have full rights to all content. I reserve the right to save a copy for my portfolio, however it is not published, or resold to anyone else.

any freelancer who won't do that, you should not waste your time doing business with.
Unfortunately there are some freelancers on some sites who use spun content, and even plr articles, and sell them as originals. This is why checking copyscape on your articles that you buy is important when hiring a freelancer to write for you, esecially if you do not know them, or have a working background with them.
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spotwriters
Posts: 1
Joined: 25 Jul 10
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25 Jul 10 5:25 pm

 I have been a freelance writer in elance and other sites. As per their guidelines the buyer have the full ownership of the content created and the ownership is by default transferred after the payment is made.

To play safe, you can remind the writer about this before paying. However any self respecting service provider will not argue on this either :)
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