Henry
Autoexreginated
First of all, I'd say that Sean's rather lengthy "point 1 - point 2" post best summed up my opinion on the matter, too, in a better fashion.
As you say, the author still with second rights is at no loss - he's updated the article, and the old article is still for a low-popularity old RPG system; the new article has lost no value by reprinting the old one.
I don't dispute an author with a first-print only contract; if a CD compliation is truly just a reprint, as I think, then the publisher would be well within its rights, the author got paid exactly by contract with no need for additional recompense, and the serious fans (the only ones buying the thing, anyway) win by getting access to old difficult-to-get material.
My point that you quoted was that most writers of RPG material are serious fans of the hobby (since it pays comparatively poorly, that's likely the MAIN reason they are writing in the first place IMO). As such, faced with contending a contract that is POSSIBLY violated, for small recompense, versus letting it stand as a reprint run as the publisher believes, the majority of them will likely get something that has intrinsic value to them as fans. I'm not saying they should "shut up so as not to be spoilers" or any such thing, but I'm stating a not-so-obvious benefit to reprinting said material to writers of the old product.
Now, if they had started picking and choosing what to print out of the old magazines, instead of printing in total, they would DEFINITELY be violating any "First-print" clauses.
arcady said:Lets say I had been one of those freelancers and had authored up an amazingly good article on DMing political intrigues in a freeform manner...I know my best work is sitting there in an old Dragon, and I want to take it, update it to RPG-X, and republush it.
If I still have second rights I can do this, but if I sold the thing off fully I'm at a loss. Not only that but if I write something original but a little too similar for Publisher-X, I and they might get sued by Hasbro (witness how Gygax got sued over Dangerous Journeys - and all he did was write in the same genre as he had for TSR)...
As you say, the author still with second rights is at no loss - he's updated the article, and the old article is still for a low-popularity old RPG system; the new article has lost no value by reprinting the old one.
I don't dispute an author with a first-print only contract; if a CD compliation is truly just a reprint, as I think, then the publisher would be well within its rights, the author got paid exactly by contract with no need for additional recompense, and the serious fans (the only ones buying the thing, anyway) win by getting access to old difficult-to-get material.
My point that you quoted was that most writers of RPG material are serious fans of the hobby (since it pays comparatively poorly, that's likely the MAIN reason they are writing in the first place IMO). As such, faced with contending a contract that is POSSIBLY violated, for small recompense, versus letting it stand as a reprint run as the publisher believes, the majority of them will likely get something that has intrinsic value to them as fans. I'm not saying they should "shut up so as not to be spoilers" or any such thing, but I'm stating a not-so-obvious benefit to reprinting said material to writers of the old product.
Now, if they had started picking and choosing what to print out of the old magazines, instead of printing in total, they would DEFINITELY be violating any "First-print" clauses.