A recent posting by IEunuch reported that a server problem had been solved. Then he went on to say:

<<To all authors - Submit your stories! Go here to submit them right now. The EA needs your contribution.>>

Trouble is, another slightly less recent posting pointed out that if an author does submit a story, he's (er, also she's) ipso facto surrendering all his (her) rights to the story to the Archive.

I have an active (some say perverted) mind and a literary bent. A while back I did post a couple of my stories. I didn't realise I was giving away my literary talent for others to (perhaps) capitalise on. I confess I'm not inclined to give EA the rights to any more of my evil concoctions. Who knows, maybe there's a real publisher somewhere who will one day want to bring out a collection of my erotic stories! And pay me MONEY!!!

Surely there must be a way for budding writers of eunuch-oriented fiction to show off their little masterpieces without (in effect) giving them away?

Again, you are not surrendering all rights to the EA. The EA is not making money off your stories. The EA is not out to sell your stories.

What you are giving us is an irrevocable licence to display your story on our site. We don't own the story. We've never claimed to hold all rights to your story.

This has been explained before, and I have no doubts it will be explained again. The EA DOES NOT own your story. You can go out and sell it, do whatever you want with it. We just have the right to keep the copy you submit as part of our archive. That is all.

Think of it as giving us a copy of a book. Doesn't give us rights to the story, just to the physical book itself. Please, by all means go out and attempt to collate and sell the stories you write. We wish you all the best and hope you succeed.

In an conversation with Bboy, the founder of the archive, I asked him about editing stories. He said that the file structure was such that it was nearly impossible to remove anything without the possibility of serious damage. He was reluctant to alter anything once it was posted, though he would add revised versions of items that were already posted.

This conversation took place some time ago, and I have no idea whether the Archive uses the same system today or not.

My posting of "the EA holds all rights to the version of the story on the EA" is simply a fancy legal way of saying that you are giving us the right to forever display your story on the EA. IE's book analogy explains it well