Bob--
While I obviously would want to see the contract before making an absolute statement, it pretty likely is not a work for hire. That doesn't mean you can't convey the copyright away, but there is a difference.
A work for hire is NOT the same as a commissioned work. Instead, a work for hire is either a) one which was made by an employee in the course of his employment, or b) certain types of commissioned works, which IST probably isn't, though I suppose a case could be made given that there's art and so forth. But that second one is really quite limited, and apparently the result of only a few very narrowly targeted lobbies pursuing it.
As to whether you're an employee, it depends on the actual circumstances involved. If SJG exerted so much control over it that you were just the hands, if they handled your withholding, paid appropriate taxes, and so forth, then you probably are. If there's just a contract and some cash changing hands, then you probably aren't. What the parties call it isn't determinative.
The reason why you wouldn't have a legal foot to stand on regardless (and assuming you didn't sign away the copyright anyway) would probably be because getting into a fight would probably screw up your relationship with SJG pretty significantly, and that's probably more important to you. It's always better to get in legal fights with strangers.
Thus, I'm planning on -- one of these days -- publishing my unauthorized Gurps Cliffhangers worldbook, and am not terribly worried about it since I have no relationship with SJG to jeopardize.
Anyhow, I wish you luck. I've had a copy of IST since it first came out, and it's a good book.
While I obviously would want to see the contract before making an absolute statement, it pretty likely is not a work for hire. That doesn't mean you can't convey the copyright away, but there is a difference.
A work for hire is NOT the same as a commissioned work. Instead, a work for hire is either a) one which was made by an employee in the course of his employment, or b) certain types of commissioned works, which IST probably isn't, though I suppose a case could be made given that there's art and so forth. But that second one is really quite limited, and apparently the result of only a few very narrowly targeted lobbies pursuing it.
As to whether you're an employee, it depends on the actual circumstances involved. If SJG exerted so much control over it that you were just the hands, if they handled your withholding, paid appropriate taxes, and so forth, then you probably are. If there's just a contract and some cash changing hands, then you probably aren't. What the parties call it isn't determinative.
The reason why you wouldn't have a legal foot to stand on regardless (and assuming you didn't sign away the copyright anyway) would probably be because getting into a fight would probably screw up your relationship with SJG pretty significantly, and that's probably more important to you. It's always better to get in legal fights with strangers.
Thus, I'm planning on -- one of these days -- publishing my unauthorized Gurps Cliffhangers worldbook, and am not terribly worried about it since I have no relationship with SJG to jeopardize.
Anyhow, I wish you luck. I've had a copy of IST since it first came out, and it's a good book.