Electronic rights have become the most debated and contented issue in the publishing world, or rather writing industry, these days. With many writers publishing their work on electronic communication medium, such as Internet, there is always a risk of getting the work copied or plagiarised by others. Hence, any writer who wants to protect his or her work must apply for a copyright protection. But what are these rights and how are they used?
Electronic rights refer to an author's to claim original ownership of certain intellectual property published and distributed through an electronic medium. This electronic intellectual property can be a free software source code shared on the Web, or literary works such as e-magazine articles, novels, poetry, music composition, etc. On the other hand, in the area of electronic publishing, electronic rights encompass broad subjects and kinds of rights. These include verbatim electronic rights, database rights and interactive rights.
Verbatim electronic rights refer to the right of making a book available on the Internet or hand-held devices like mobile phones with an e-book reader. While database rights is a right that entitles one to electronic collections of books or writings, e.g. cookbook and anthologies. Interactive rights, on the other hand, define the writers and the publishers' right to an electronic version of a book that has been enhanced by a third party publisher with interactive material like audio and video.
Writers who are making their works available in electronic devices must get a copyright for their work if they want to make rightful claim for the possible revenue and profit that their work might earn.
