Custom writing services and copyright transfer

Does anybody know of a North American-based custom writing service which transfers the copyright to you? This feature is important to me, as I cannot otherwise be certain that the essay will not be reused. In addition, a transfer of copyright would be especially appropriate in my case because I will be providing the outline/ideas/sources for the essay. Thanks.

Since I DO know of at least one UK writing service that offers copyright transfer, I'm assuming there will be US companies which offer this as well. Please advise.

No. That is downright illegal. Any site that advertises copyright transfer is almost certainly NOT American, regardless of what the owners may falsely claim.

Illegal? That's interesting. By the same token, wouldn't they have to cite the outline you provided? I guess e-mailing a customer is not considered a form of publishing.

Anyway, I guess what I'm looking for is the assurance that the essay I get won't be used again or even be borrowed from for some future paper.

If you're willing to trust them to honor their formal transfer of copyright to you, why wouldn't you just trust their explicit promise never to reuse your paper without a formal transfer of rights? It would be just as easy to lie about it either way and you'd be very unlikely ever to know they breached the agreement, especially if they waited months before reselling it.

Promises, contracts, and laws in general don't do much to protect you; they just give you statutory rights that you have to pursue on your own after a breach (or other wrong). Do you really plan to scour the Internet forever looking for a violation of your copyright so that you can then file a claim in court against a company and also make your use of their service public record in the process?

All the sites that use me all resell papers but they wait at least 3-4 months to do so except one, and that site charges more partly because of that (I assume) as well as because they specialize in PhD-level dissertations.

My advice is not to worry about copyrights and just go with a legitimate U.S. site that delivers a good product and won't rip you off. If you research carefully enough on this forum, you should be able to identify several. Good luck.

Hey FW, I just sent you a message!

Is this what they actually promise? Not all companies state this...

Last week I talked to a copyright lawyer (I'm trying to register a trademark) and he said he has never heard anything about copyright transfer to any intellectual work (including academic) being illegal. He even contacted and consulted another attorney about that. It is all between you and your client (and the terms of your contract). If you want to sell or transfer copyright to your work - you have every right to do that.

Exactly right. I don't know what other companies' terms of service contract and disclaimer look like, but this issue is specifically set out in the ones I use.

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Copyright to academic papers

I'm a little confused about copyright issues related to academic papers. Some (most?) of the academic writing services explicitly state in their Terms that the copyright to the model paper belongs to the company and that they may resell the paper after a few months to other students.

First question - would I be liable for copyright violation if I use the model paper (that was custom-written for me) and then the company finds out I used their copyrighted work? And what if I used the paper before the company resells it (would the copyright violation still apply)?

Second question - some freelance writers that don't have a website don't have any Terms. Does it mean I don't have to worry about copyright issues if I order from them? Of course I want to be legal and use the papers as model research only.

This has already been beaten to death many times in this forum. Try searching.

Very unlikely.


You'd have to ask an active writer, but my guess is you don't have to worry, either (assuming you don't use the model research to earn an academic credit).

This is a crazy industry. I once had a client who reposted several of the papers I wrote for him. He had the nerve to sign his name to them and everything. I later found out it was a fake name. A few of the places where he was trying to peddle my work were commercial; the funny thing was, he wasn't trying to sell them as used-up term-papers. He was aiming higher, trying to sell them as his own precious brain-children, through various academic publishing sites.

I got really disgusted and angry when I found the stuff. I even found his real name and sicced my lawyer on him. A lot of the postings went down pretty quickly after that, but a few stayed up. Eventually, I let it go. He was in another country; I just dropped it.

Assuming he paid for the papers, why was it so upsetting? IF he did a chargeback, that's another story, but if he paid and posted them it shouldn't be a big deal.

Agreed. I may retain the copyright technically; but in a practical sense, once I write something for hire, I consider it to belong entirely to the client. When I write for essay companies and corporate clients, they usually specify that they'll own the copyrights and it's explicitly understood from the outset.

The copyright belonged to the company I did them for, of course. I am, as anyone, disturbed by seeing someone trying to be me.

No offense intended, but that's ironic considering your chosen S/N here.

I do plenty of (non-academic) ghostwriting and there are dozens of articles and blogs and white papers published online that are attributed to the dentists, lawyers, veterinarians, and company reps in various other industries whose names and pictures appear right above the verbatim copy that I authored for them. It would be nice to be credited for them, but as a ghostwriter, I understand that's exactly what they're paying me for.

To be clear, what you purchased is a model paper. That is why the rights remain with the company, unless otherwise specified. That is also why the paper can be resold by the company after a few months. The model paper is never to be submitted for a grade. You are supposed to paraphrase that paper in order to make it usable. The only parts you should not paraphrase are the actual quotes. Therefore, if you paraphrased the paper before submitting it, then you should be in the clear in terms of possible plagiarism charges. You won't have any copyright violation in such an instance.

The independent / freelance writers who write original model papers for a client are a different case. Each paper they write is done in an original manner and could actually be submitted for a grade if you need to. That is because each paper that an independent writer creates is specially written for the client. There is no duplication of content, nor copyright issues as the writer, by default, since you paid for the paper, turned over the rights to the original written work to you for all intents and purposes. You should however, make sure to get this assurance from your independent writer before you close the deal and make any payments for the paper.

Most of the academic writing companies that I worked with in the past always informed the writers, not the clients, that all the rights, both intellectual and proprietary to the written work would be transferred to the client upon completion of the work. So that means the client has the right to use the paper in any way that he deems fit for his needs. It also assures the client that the paper will not be resold nor republished by the company or writer to another party in perpetuity. Not all companies inform the clients about this clause though and are only told of it / given a copy of the agreement upon request. While I find this a bit silly since the original paper is written in a specific manner for a client, thus negating the possibility of using it with another client in the future, I did make such electronic agreements with my previous clients when requested to do so. It's all a matter of trust and by being amenable to such a request from clients, it offered them peace of mind and helped them become more comfortable in dealing with me when they placed future orders.

Students should be very careful these days and really take the time to read the Terms of Service of the company they are considering hiring. There are actually more and more companies that opt to retain their rights (the writers give up these rights to the work as soon as the paper is submitted) to the paper for future use. I noticed a rise in this copyright retention with the companies when an upsurge in "free essays" within these companies began. Apparently, they keep the rights to "revise, alter and republish" the paper in any manner they deem fit within a given time frame. That means, they can republish the same paper, with slight changes to the content, a semester after it was originally ordered by the student.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a company that declares a transfer of ownership of the paper to the student will actually honor their word. Writing companies have been known to pay their writers to paraphrase the same paper for them. They pay the original writer to change the wording and as such, the writer gives the company a totally new paper, that can be sold to a new student based on the same assignment instruction.

The company will not use the same paper within the same semester. The company will also not use the paper in the same form. The original writer will be ordered to revise the whole document either as a revision request or a small change paraphrasing order. You don't have to worry about the company using your paper immediately after you bought it. They will give you at least one semester to use the paper free and clear of any plagiarism worries.

As for the second question, most writers that I know of automatically turn over the rights to the complete paper to the student. As @Smiley73 said, the paper was originally written for you. The writer doesn't have any interest in retaining your order simply because he will have to write a totally new one for a new client, regardless of how similar the order instructions may be. Due to the length of time that has passed, the writer will at least have to update the sources, in which case he ends up writing a new paper anyway. So no worries when it comes to the copyright of academic papers. It always rests in the student's hands.

In most cases, the only one notentitled to the ownership is the writer. Once the order is paid, complete, and accepted by the client, the writer has no further rights to the work. The company, however, may still hold ownership, depending on their policies. As @WriteReview said, it's important to read the company's TOS beforehand. As an independent writer, I don't reuse or recycle papers I write for students. Heck, many of my clients are referrals and the pool of friends are taking the same course (and often in the same class). I'd be stupid to reuse the paper, though I know some do. Overall, when a student purchases a paper, the moment the completed paper is sent to them, the paper becomes the student's property. A paper is not like a car or house where you're making payments and risk losing the rights to the car or home if payments are not made. Papers are more like toilet paper (pun intended). You buy toilet paper from Walmart. The moment you pay for it and take it home, it's yours. Walmart no longer owns the item in its inventory. How you use or misuse it is your business. Wipe your butt, take off your makeup, wipe your nose... it's yours to do with as you please!

It is because of this copyright question that I developed a 6 month deletion policy for the papers my writers create. Stored on my company server, the student is told upon the submission of the paper to them that the electronic version uploaded by the writer will be held in our server for 3 months before it is moved to our back up servers. The storing for 3 months in Server A is meant to keep a file for the client in case of revisions, additional related orders, or anything that requires the writer to access an original version of the paper. The move to Server B is the final step where, after the semester is completed, the paper is totally deleted from the system. No copy is retained and the ownership of the paper / intellectual property for the paper is assuredly in the client's corner. To be clear, the client knows that the rights to the paper are automatically turned over to him / her after it is submitted and the deletion process was only meant to drive home that point.

The rule about the transfer of rights for the paper stands when you are dealing with an essay writing company or an individual writer. This does not apply when you are using an AI to write the paper. There is no clear demarcation when it comes to paper ownership in this case. Since the paper was automatically generated, does it belong to Google or ChatGPT? I think that is something these AI companies should clarify for the benefit of the students using their services.