: Re: How would I give the rights to my novel to my parents? I'm wondering because due to reasons I will not disclose, I am not allowed to make any money. I was wondering if I could give the

@Bryan361

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Obligatory disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

Legal rights to a copyright are just like any other property right: you can buy, sell, or trade them. Like any non-trivial business transaction, it's a good idea to have a written contract to protect everybody involved.

If this is a deal just between you and your parents, and I presume from the context you're on good terms, the contract needn't be complicated. I see others advising to get a lawyer. That wouldn't hurt, but in this case I doubt it's necessary. Lawyers cost money and it's likely the cost of a lawyer here is significant compared to the value of the asset. If you want to just give away rights, I presume you're not worried that they'll cheat you somehow. And I doubt they're worried that this is some sort of trick on your part to get them to accept money for the book and then you sue them for copyright violation. But it helps to have a written agreement just in case someone changes their mind later, or some third party gets involved, like a publisher asks for evidence that they own the rights.

If you're living in the United States, then for a contract to be valid there must be "consideration". That is, giving something away for free is not a binding contract; you have to get something in return. Even if it's something trivial. Some contracts will say "in receipt of and other valuable consideration" to fulfill this condition. If you're under 18, most contracts you sign are not binding. If you're not in the US, these may or may not apply. That's the reason why people go to lawyers: because a lawyer should know what rules like this apply to you.

All that said, the obvious big question is why you are "not allowed to make money". I'm not asking you to give away personal information that you don't want to give away. But the reason might be relevant to the answer. If the reason is legal -- you're in prison in a state where prisoners aren't allowed to have outside income, or you lost a lawsuit and any earnings would have to be turned over to the winner, etc -- then it's possible that a court would suspect that such an agreement with your parents was a subterfuge, and that they were going to give you the money back under the table in violation of the law. If you're doing this to get around some legal restriction, you probably should talk to a lawyer before you land both you and your parents in prison. If it's something truly personal, like "my wife would just squander the money", then any issues it raises would presumably also be purely personal.

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