Buyer naming a different person as an author

[Guest bonygrafi1]

Hello, here’s the situation I have:

buyer ordered a book cover. I haven’t mentioned everywhere, that crediting me as an outhor is a must.

Nevertheless, later in this book’s Amazon I find, that in the book author IS mentioned - surprisingly, a different person who has nothing to do with the artwork and design.

Now the question - is this legal? I know buyer gets the copyright after purchasing from Fiverr, but does he have the right to change authorship of the artwork as if someone else created it?

Please don’t pass on, your help and answers are really needed!

[fonthaunt]

The buyer is allowed to do whatever they want with the work unless you made a very specific arrangement that said otherwise. The buyer owns all rights unless you informed them prior to purchase that some rights were not offered or that you had to be credited in some way.

[Guest bonygrafi1]

The buyer is allowed to do whatever they want with the work unless you made a very specific arrangement that said otherwise. The buyer owns all rights unless you informed them prior to purchase that some rights were not offered or that you had to be credited in some way.

If I’m not wrong, EU employment law says that eventhough the client has copyrights, author doesn’t lose the rights to authorship.

From what it seems, Fiverr’s rules says differently. But question is - which law is higher?

[fonthaunt]

If I’m not wrong, EU employment law says that eventhough the client has copyrights, author doesn’t lose the rights to authorship.

From what it seems, Fiverr’s rules says differently. But question is - which law is higher?

I can’t answer the legal question. Fiverr HQ is in Israel so I have no idea how that would work. I just know what the Terms of Service says. Each seller agrees to it when creating an account. For the legal question to even matter you would have to be willing to hire an international attorney.

Even then, it’s the buyer you’d have to go after since Fiverr has nothing to do with orders after completion. You don’t have the buyer identity so a lawyer would have to find a way to force Fiverr to give out that private info and then you’d have to sue the buyer. Sounds expensive, but you could if you wanted to.

It seems to me that it would be easier to let go of whatever you’ve already sold and write in a disclaimer for future orders so that you don’t give out all the rights unless they pay extra.

[misscrystal]

If he only got a book cover from you how does that make you the author?

You can’t force him to list you as the one who designed the cover. That is up to him. You gave away the copyright to him according to fiverr’s rules.

If he agreed to list you as the cover designer that might be different but really this is not important. I can assure you no one is going to see your name listed as the one who designed the cover and hire you from that.

Whether or not he has the right to claim someone else designed the cover would be up to a judge in a courtroom probably. It’s not worth worrying about.

[fonthaunt]

If he only got a book cover from you how does that make you the author?

You can’t force him to list you as the one who designed the cover. That is up to him. You gave away the copyright to him according to fiverr’s rules.

If he agreed to list you as the cover designer that might be different but really this is not important. I can assure you no one is going to see your name listed as the one who designed the cover and hire you from that.

Whether or not he has the right to claim someone else designed the cover would be up to a judge in a courtroom probably. It’s not worth worrying about.

a book cover from you how does that make you the author

This is a good point. I assumed from reading the OP post that perhaps there was some confusion with the English word “author” and that @bonygrafi1 meant “cover designer” or something similar. Even if it is just a mistaken word, though, the buyer could just decide not to mention the cover anywhere in or on the completed book. I have books out that don’t credit anyone for cover design because I didn’t have a reason to do so. Back to the OP - if you did mean that you wanted to be credited as an author you would have to be responsible for the actual writing, not just the cover. (That’s what misscrystal is saying about the word ‘author’.)

[fastcopywriter]

Hold on, if you’re the book designer, how could you be credited as an author? You could be credited as a designer, if the buyer wants that, but it’s not mandatory.

If you’re talking about a buyer who’s publishing a book under a different name, that is perfectly legal, in fact, it’s extremely common.

My suggestion is just do the job and don’t worry about anything else. Remember, we’re creatives. We’re not partners, company owners, lawyers, accountants, government officials, etc. Sometimes we can give advice, but it’s very tricky, and since I’m not hired to advice anyone, I rarely give it.

[Guest bonygrafi1]

No no, I didnt mean naming me as book author, no way. What I mean is that he is naming another artist for painting and designing the cover

[fonthaunt]

No no, I didnt mean naming me as book author, no way. What I mean is that he is naming another artist for painting and designing the cover

As mentioned before, unless you made it very clear that you were not selling all rights at the price paid, the buyer can use any name (or no name) as they see fit. It isn’t unusual for people to publish books with pseudonyms and the buyer may have also assigned a separate pseudonym for the “cover artist” which is odd but perfectly legal. Even if they used a real name, they own the artwork so they can do that if they want to. I am not sure why it matters since you got paid for what you did through Fiverr and that’s what you are here for. Sellers don’t give out their personal details to buyers anyway. 🙂

[archinerd]

if your buyer has asked you to design the cover art, it doesn’t mean he has to credit you. It is his decision because he hasn’t asked you to design the cover for free in trade of your name in the credits. Besides you should be mainly concerned with your projects.
Your area to focus at Fiverr should be to provide best services to your buyers in order to make good contacts and public relations.
I am not criticising you, consider it as a suggestion 🙂

[designer_pro2]

If you have not mentioned whether the copyrights are included in the delivered work or not, you can not do anything.

[oscarspaeglis]

I had the same, but I really dont care about that.

Loads of people order to edit videos for them, and then at the end at credits write them as Camera/Edit even i dit all of that editing…

It really doesnt effect me, since if somebody would like to have the edit from that guy, he comes back to me to do the same, so i am not upset of that.