Magazine Article Rights

[Noah Kolman]

mmadsen,

If you have any problems with our release form, you should write them up and send them to me so I can have our legal expert give you the reasons.

I can assure you that this is the standard release form we use for all submissions, whether they are 25 word spells or 100,000 word sourcebooks. If we are going to pay for something, we want to make sure that we own it.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email me.

 

[mmadsen]

If you have any problems with our release form, you should write them up and send them to me so I can have our legal expert give you the reasons.

Ah, Noah, I don't want to give the wrong impression. I don't want anyone thinking I'm saying that KenzerCo is Evil or that their contract gives writers The Shaft. I'm just trying to educate myself about intellectual property in the gaming industry.

If we are going to pay for something, we want to make sure that we own it.

Owning it can mean many different things. It sounds like the industry standard is a "for hire" contract, and if someone sold one or two cool ideas from his gameworld as magazine articles, he couldn't ever publish his gameworld.

 

[Nightfall]

mmadsen,

Well when S&SS held their Open Call for R&R2, people were required to sign a similiar contract. It basically stated that IF anything was used, it was the property of WW/S&SS and thus subject to their approval and so forth. So I'm pretty sure Kenzer isn't doing ANYTHING different from what the rest of the RPG companies do with their stuff.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

ABC games huh? Poor Bob. Oh well, at least it wasn't FOX!

 

[Corinth]

This makes sense in a business driven more by brand names than anything else.

 

[Orclicker]

First let me state that I have worked with a few companies and that assigning all ownership of the copyright is the norm. Second I have done work for Kenzerco (I wrote the upcomming Villain Design Handbook, and had a small part in the Kalamar Player's Guide)and must say that Kenzerco is very supportive of their freelancers. If you have questions I would take Noah up on his offer, I did and the Kenzer staff went out of their way to answer my questions.

Hope this helps
Andy

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Having popped around a bit for a few years now, first for a non-d20 company and now among the latter industry, I can say that there hasn't been a single time that I've submitted, let alone sold, anything without a similar form having been signed.

Signing over the rights to all derivative works is the norm, otherwise the author would be able to take work to other comapnies based on the same premise/setting that could be in direct conflict with that of the original work.

 

[mmadsen]

This makes sense in a business driven more by brand names than anything else.

I don't see what you mean, Corinth. Could you explain?

 

[mmadsen]

Having popped around a bit for a few years now, first for a non-d20 company and now among the latter industry, I can say that there hasn't been a single time that I've submitted, let alone sold, anything without a similar form having been signed.

I can believe that. Can I assume that Dragon buys all work "for hire"?

Signing over the rights to all derivative works is the norm, otherwise the author would be able to take work to other comapnies based on the same premise/setting that could be in direct conflict with that of the original work.

As I said before, I think there's quite a difference between a small work (a magazine article) and a big work (a worldbook) when it comes to derivative works. It seems odd to sell a monster write-up to a magazine then not have the right to use your own monster in your own product well after the magazine is out of print and off game-store shelves. With a small work, the publisher hasn't bought much product, but somehow he's bought a lot of derivative work.

And let's be honest; what's the absolute worst, most dastardly thing you could do with a magazine article if you didn't sign over all the rights to the publisher? Sell it to another magazine? Is anyone going to think less of a magazine for carrying the same (good) article as another magazine?

 

[Corinth]

I don't see what you mean, Corinth. Could you explain?

It's the strength of a given brand name that provides the value to a work more than anything else in the eyes of Joe Gamer, as borne out by the success of the D20 System Trademark License and Kenzer's Kalamar product lines. This is a good justification for the standard being work-for-hire in this niche of the world's gaming business.