User blog comment:ThisIsLucid/Creepypasta Short Stories Book/@comment-25947144-20170124130956/@comment-7064562-20170125081708

Umm no you can't just publish with giving credit or because there random old users. Even if they’re abandoned accounts or an admin of the wiki says it’s cool, once something is put anywhere online, it's counted as "Published" and owned by the one person who wrote it. You can quote from them, but taking their story and putting into a book is stealing(Yes even if you give credit, this is basic 8th grade stuff here). They have there work up, it's "published" on the wiki, and it's their story they own 100% of the rights to regardless of if they're active or not. If you do not get their permission to use it, you can't use it and if you do put it in "your book" and someone finds out and gets mad, you're going to be in big trouble for most likley no real pay off. I suggest taking out the "If the story isn't yours and you want to suggest it" out, as people shouldn't be doing that for obvious reasons. If you do get permission from them, make SURE to screen them saying you can use it, you don't want them flopping on you and trying to sue or something.

Your idea of using random forgotten ones pretty much equals going to a old book store, taking a book and claiming it as your own because it was written 50 years ago.

To own a piece or work, you don't need to go through fancy lawyers or publishers, you simply have to own proof that it's yours and you created it. So a story put up by a user is legally there's 100%. That's why youtubers got into so much trouble when they STOLE people's stories and narrated them. It's also why you can't steal peoples videos on youtube and just edit them a little or something.

So even if I wrote a crap story that's 550 words, and no one has ever read, and it was up for 2 years with only one comment calling me a faggot, and you used it, and I found out, I could and SHOULD sue the fuck out of you if you published it without my consent.

Also, with stories like Noendhouse and other popular works, you would also have to get permission from not only the author of the story, but others who have used it and own part of the licensing of it(as empty said) as most popular stories have been narrated or already part of other books and even with the author's consent, the other parties still hold a right to that work. That's why if you rip off harry potter, not only could JK sue you, but the whole publishing company, merchandising companies, movie directors, etc.

As for the publishing goes...

I've talked to a few editors and I should tell you, self publishing is the only way to go with this and it would be best to just do it on amazon or from your own website, that way funding isn't really needed, as you're not established anywhere so getting funding and the name of the book out there would be hard. It would also be hard to find people to fund it, as you yourself have no credit, nor will most of the authors in "your book". However, If you tried to go for a company with this, it wouldn't work as most companies avoid anything with more than one author for legal reasons, and as this can flop with copyright easy, it would never workout(Not saying you're even trying for a company, but...ya) Honestly it's best to make complete original stories and work for it to and maybe showcase 1 or 2 popular writers that have some throw away stories or something to give and make them the spotlight.

I also find the " <span style="font-size:14px;font-family:Arial;color:#d5d4d4;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">P.S. The people at /r/nosleepOOC are ignorant brats and will not be included." Unprofessional and that's not how an editor, someone who needs people to work under them, should act. Couple that in with how ignorant you are to copyright laws, I honestly wouldn't trust you to watch my pet fish for an hour let alone my story.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:4pt;margin-bottom:6pt;">Copyright is a major complex thing but the easiest way to some ALL Of this up is, if you don't get a 100% clear OK YOU CAN USE IT, DON'T USE IT.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:4pt;margin-bottom:6pt;">Best of luck to you

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:4pt;margin-bottom:6pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:4pt;margin-bottom:6pt;">- Signed

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:4pt;margin-bottom:6pt;">- The God Of Kiwi Birds.