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Why Saturn copyrights its publications

Customers sometimes ask us why we retain copyrights for our publications, rather than give unlimited rights to the organization which paid for its production.

We have a good reason: it allows us to produce publications at less cost to our customers. In producing new publications, we often combine customers to share development costs, and so reduce the costs for each organization. We may also use that text and illustrations for another new project. We may, for example, produce an illustrated 200-page guidebook at a cost of $100,000. If we can find five customers who pay an average of $20,000, each receives a custom publication with its own cover, foreword, and customized content. We make a reasonable profit, and provide custom publications to customers who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

Saturn holds the transferable copyright to every publication we produce. Our customers also have a copyright that allows them to use the publication for all internal needs of their organization. However, these customers may not sell their or give away their copyrights.

Our copyrights represent a capital investment. Our newer publications tend to lose money for a few years and our older ones make money. Most years it balances out.

What copyrights do for publishers

A copyright is protection against someone copying your text and/or illustrations and using them to make money without your permission. The Library Fair Use Act allows individuals to make copies for their own personal use. If this copying goes beyond the personal use into commercial use, it is a copyright violation. For example, if an instructor buys a copy of a publication and photocopies it 15 times as a handout for a seminar, that is a copyright violation. The publication adds value to the seminar and we aren’t being paid for the value the publication is adding to the seminar.

Writing and art in the “public domain” is intentionally not copyrighted. Public-domain works are usually published by governments or non-profit organizations. You often don’t know who authored the publication or when. Nobody is responsible for an uncopyrighted publication, and nobody has the incentive to revise or improve it.

We believe that almost all credible and valuable documents should be copyrighted. The author(s) should care enough about their publication to want to know who is using the work and for what purpose. The document’s user should respect the author(s) and ask permission before using the document.

You are automatically granted a copyright for anything you create even if you don’t put a copyright symbol and date on the work. The copyright is more valid if you put a copyright on the work (© Saturn Resource Management 2008) and more valid still if you register it with the Library of Congress. If your employer owns your work under the terms of your employment or if you sign away your copyright, then you have given up your copyright.

If someone violates your copyright, you must send him or her a letter demanding that they cease and desist, as soon as you find out about the violation. If the violators continue, you can sue them for $2500 to $25,000 or for the actual damages, whichever are greater. Actual damages are the funds a violator earned with the unauthorized aid of your copyrighted publication.