I wrote for a religious news service for 2 years. They fired me (possibly as retaliation for an unsafe work environment citation they received from OSHA after I filed a complaint).

I had just written and submitted 1/2 dozen stories for them the week of my termination. They ran the stories but did not credit me as author. In one case, they took a story they had already published, removed my name, and then republished it with the byline, "by staff writer." Every story I wrote for them for 2 years was credited to me until my termination.

Isn't it illegal to knowingly publish a writer's work without attributing it to the writer?

Is it illegal to pull a published piece, remove the author's name and republish the piece?

If by "illegal" you mean is the employer facing criminal charges for theft or unlawful taking - no.

As an employer, (unless there is some employer/employee contract stating otherwise) they automatically own all work product that you produce while acting within the scope of your employment; whether that's a full article or story submitted for publication, or handwritten notes on a cocktail napkin. If it was written for an employer by an employee, the company owns it and enjoys all rights related to it - and they don't need a written contract or other document that says so (per the Copyright Act). As such, they have no legal obligation to credit a specific author, although they may be in troubled legal waters if they credit it to a specific person fraudulantly.

Here's some good info from the Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Section:

http://www.easl.info/modules.php?op=...article&sid=27

As always, you should get an opinion from a licensed Florida attorney who deals specifically with these types of cases (you're looking for someone who practices under copyright law, or sometimes it's called "intellectual property law").

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

I agree with aardvarc that it is very typical for news stories to be considered "works for hire" and legally the "property" of the empoyer for whom the pieces are written, as opposed to the author of the piece. However, sometimes copyrights are retained by authors. If the pieces are legally the property of the employer, without any restrictions on use of the pieces, then they can generally do whatever they want with the piece including removing a byline.

Learn more here: http://resources.lawinfo.com/Search.html?q=copyright

http://resources.lawinfo.com/Search....ourceType:FAQs

http://blog.lawinfo.com/2008/04/16/h...-infringement/

See also: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf