Comments on: Raw Zudanotes II: Rights Agreement

By: Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Webcomics In Review: 2007

Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Webcomics In Review: 2007 — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:14:39 +0000

[...] — The amount of money that a Zudawinner needs to be paid every four years to keep the rights from reverting back to the creator. Significant mostly because Zuda (which has [...]

By: Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Raw Zudanotes III: Services Agreement

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:17:44 +0000

[...] contributions. First impression: the Services Agreement is between the Submission (short) and Rights (long) Agreements in length. As before, numbers are taken from the various paragraphs in the [...]

By: Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Being A Short Contrast Of Two Divergent Models Of The Creator/Publisher Dynamic

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:48:38 +0000

[...] On the one hand you’ve got the traditional publisher, complete with royalties for creators, paid from the coffers of a large media conglomerate. I particularly recommend your [...]

By: Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Zuda Thoughts: Final

Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Zuda Thoughts: Final — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:08:38 +0000

[...] Reviews Okay, so we’ve picked apart the contracts, and we’ve all had plenty of time to think about things. Let’s put this [...]

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Sept. 26, 2007: Daddy says nothing

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:21:23 +0000

[...] Gary Tyrrell continues his examination of the just-released Zudacomics contracts with a look at the rights [...]

By: DAJB

DAJB — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 06:33:18 +0000

Your reading of the Rights Agreement pretty much tallies with mine. In essence this is broadly similar to a standard “work-for-hire” agreement. You get paid. Zuda takes all material rights and control. There are reversion rights but Zuda can block these at minimal cost.

There’s nothing inherently bad in this. Like the much-maligned Platinum contract it will suit some and not others.

It depends what you want but, if you’re looking for a creator-owned deal, then this probably isn’t it.

By: John Ward

John Ward — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:02:34 +0000

Thanks for taking time to analyze these contracts and to write up your thoughts.

I’m not a lawyer. That being said, I’m not entirely convinced that the contracts are really terrible as long as everyone who signs it is aware of what could happen.

It’s kind of like walking into a 7-11 only to find out that they are giving away lottery tickets with the understanding that they will take a certain percentage of your winnings should you hit the jackpot in exchange for that particular 7-11 giving you the opportunity to play for free.

Congratulations! You win the big Mega Jackpot– and the owner of the 7-11 gets anywhere between 60% to 99% of your winnings based off of which game you were playing when you won.

Eh, I’m probably just restating the obvious there, but I get to typing and can’t stop myself. The point of this comment is to ask you if I am correct in my understanding that they will continue to hold certain rights to the material you created for them even if they allow the rights to revert to you after the four year period. My reading of the contract– specifically, the submissions portion– leads me to believe that Zuda retains the rights to produce print anthologies based off of the submissions material (if you were selected for the competition) that you created specifically for them EVEN if they give you your rights back. I’m basing that off of paragraph five which states: “The perpetual right to include the Submission in a print anthology of submissions (an “Anthology” ), on a non-exclusive basis.”

That statement, and the general attitude of the entire contract, leads me to wonder that should you win the competition that they would hold similar– if not more comprehensive– rights to material that you created during your contract of 52 additional screens for them.

Again, I’m not a lawyer, but it certainly reads that way for the competition part at the very least.

By: Audio book musings » Blog Archive » Raw Zudanotes II: Rights Agreement

Audio book musings » Blog Archive » Raw Zudanotes II: Rights Agreement — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:40:09 +0000

[...] mosie1944 wrote an interesting post today on Raw Zudanotes II: Rights AgreementHere’s a quick excerptprint — 1% of cover price; merch — 1.6% of SRP or 5% of gross receipts if no SRP; reprints — 20% of net; non-reprint publications (novelizations, books on tape, etc) — also 20% of net; other productions (including movies, TV, … [...]