Buying Copyrighted Material

[INFORG]

I have a kind of wierd situation that I wanted to get some advice on. I am currently in negotiations to purchase a website and domain, that would also include some copyrighted works - to be more specific, self published books with ISBN numbers.


The transfer of these works would basically be made by moving a LuLu.com writer account over to my control. I would use an escrow service to ensure proper transfer of ownership; however, I have a few basic questions:

Can I truly "own" someone elses written work?

If I now own these books, do you foresee any issues down the road with copyright problems, etc.?

I would assume that the author of the books would still be listed as such, just that they would no longer have any monetary interest in the work?

Any other comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

I've tried to do some online research on purchasing intellectual property, but couldn't really find anything regarding written works - mostly just regarding patents.

[NameYourself]

I would visit www.copyright.gov and contact them for any questions on U.S. copyrighted works.

[NavySeals91]

I am no lawyer, but I think you can own someone elses written work whether they would want royalties or not is their decision, but you are not an author so you would not be able to add your name to the authors list/page or give yourself credit for it. You can add your name on publication or copyright owner's area.

Look at Michael Jackson, he owns every Beatle song and gets a kick back from them. (Assuming you know about their whole debocle/fight/w/e its called.)