We had our monthly Living Poetry Poet's Connection meeting on January 9 2021 with special guest Denise Gibbon, Literary Attorney. She talked about copyright and answered several questions related to literary law and poetry protection.
From the About section of Denise Gibbons website:
"A publishing consultant as well as a licensed attorney in both California and New York, I represent and educate authors about contracts, copyright and other publishing issues.
After graduating from the University of San Francisco School of Law over twenty-five years ago, I began my legal career as a litigator in Los Angeles, California, where I worked for two large firms â Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, and a New York based firm (hold your breath), Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker.
In the course of representing authors in California, I prepared and negotiated publishing contracts for the Los Angeles Chapter of the national mystery writersâ organization, Sisters In Crime, and wrote a legal column dubbed âThe Legal Weaponâ for the organizationâs publication, Ransom Notes.
As an attorney in New York, I persuaded a large New York publisher not to categorize my clientâs already-published true-life-non-fiction work as fiction, successfully convinced producers of a popular TV tabloid to remove libelous material about a client from a segment prior to its national broadcast date, and persuaded a prominent and reluctant publisher to terminate three publishing contracts with a successful but dissatisfied author. Prior to that, I was a volunteer-attorney for the Authorâs Guild, a distinguished national organization that educates writers about their legal rights. There, I reviewed, explained and revised contracts of various kinds for numerous Guild members.
There was also life before and between the law gigs. As a reporter for a New York newspaper, I covered local news and interviewed artists such as Janis Ian, Richie Havens, and Cleo Laine for feature articles. In California, as a member of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective, and tutored by the inimitable Jack Grapes, I published and edited poetry with Bombshelter Press and sang for three years with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. Finally, for seventeen years, I had the presence of mind to earn a precarious and rewarding living as a professional singer in San Francisco. And between you and me, Iâd do it again."
