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Bonni Graham noted that she's "always thrilled to write and present
a paper at STC conferences. Doing so gives me a nice 'leave' piece that's
totally my own copyright. Since I also have the source file, I can publish
the 'leave' piece to whatever page layout I think most appropriate (not
always the same format as the Proceedings). Legally, to the best of my
knowledge, I'm only 'loaning' the paper itself to the conference -- granting
them one-time use rights."
That may be true for chapter or regional conferences, but if you submit a
paper to an STC annual conference's proceedings (or to the published record
of most national or international conferences), you convey copyright to the
hosting organization. (All such papers I've ever published required
completion of a copyright form prior to publication.)
While no one's likely to challenge your right to reformat and distribute a
conference paper to prospective clients or employers in the way Bonni
describes, it could be construed as a violation of the host organization's
copyright, depending on the language of the copyright release you sign.
