Non-exclusive rights

Hi all,

Was justing looking for confirmation re the term, 'non-exclusive rights' for written sketches/gags etc (ie NewsJack).

I was reading Phil Barron's blog last night (great read) re submitting work to Treason & News Revue at the same time and just wanted to clarify that the term 'non-exclusive rights' means that it is acceptable to send material in the same week to several possible commissioners?

Is this the norm? Is it acceptable to hope several productions would use the same gag or sketch as I thought that may in some way go against you? I copied this from a site on rights:

Nonexclusive is just the opposite; Publisher A may feature your piece on their website for a year, but because their right to do so is nonexclusive, you can sell the piece to Publisher B and have it appear elsewhere at the same time. Just make sure Publisher B doesn't want exclusivity!

I'm not positive about how the industry works yet and how they would view this (especially for a new writer) if you were say, planning to submit weekly to Newsjack for example. Seems to me (after the advice I received here on posting in critique) that peddling your ideas in several places for use at the same time-frame may be seen as non-ethical? But hey, that's why I asked! Don't want to start off on the wrong foot or, shoot myself in the other one!

Thanks for any advice.

Do what you want and if they grab you say f**k all and act daft, its worked for me on several occasions!

Keep doing it till it becomes a problem then say you didn't realise it was a problem
If it goes out on one programme, chances are the researchers for another program will hear it and bin the gag anyway.
They've chosen to use the words 'non-exclusive' ( presumably to keep fees down) so they know what they're in for.

I was once in an non exclusive relationship with the biggest slag in Burnley, its a hassle from the get go!

Non-exclusive rights are exactly as you say, Beej, although you should bear in mind that once you've granted non-exclusive rights, you can't give anyone exclusive rights (and vice versa) unless you've limited the original grant.