What's the Deal with GriefCom?

[The_Universe]

The announcement on the ENworld main page, which refers to a GamingReport story here, basically accusing WotC of all sorts of literary transgressions. Is this thing for real? There must be more to this story...does anybody know more than what GamingReport has already posted?

 

[Aus_Snow]

Eesh.

Sounds bad. That's about all I'm going to say for now, until I know more.

 

[frankthedm]

While it is loading...

What, are the authors complaining that D&D fans want to play with the cool stuff of their favorite fictional characters and have their PCs live in the worlds there of?

 

[cildarith]

Sounds more like they aren't being paid, but its kind of hard to tell from the release...

 

[frankthedm]

It sounds like they want to compile enough complaints for a class action suit :\ even if they have to back in time before WotC bought T$R. By doing that, I have no choice but to wish thier cause ill will. They may have many legitimate complaints, but trying to lump in what TSR did in the 80s and 90's destroys any sympathy i may have had for their cause

SFWA creates Grievance Committee "WotC Desk"
Posted 2006-10-01 20:40:24 by damonwhite


An Anonymous Reader Reports: The Grievance Committee of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has announced the creation of a special subcommittee to handle authors' complaints about Wizards of the Coast.

The announcement of the subcommittee's creation reads as follows:



*Grievance Committee & the Wizards of the Coast

Special News from Griefcom -- a new situation, a new structure, and a call for volunteers: Historically the Grievance Committee has proceeded behind a curtain because most of the cases are resolved quietly, since the science fiction and fantasy community is small, and usually both the offender and the complainant prefer that matters be kept private. Furthermore, we have been able to use the threat of publicity to good effect against offending parties because they needed or wanted to maintain a reputation in the community. As a result, most of the times when we've been able to get justice for our members, it has been because we negotiated quietly with the prospect of publicity as our final gun behind the door.

We are now faced with a new situation, and I think I owe you all some explanation for why we are changing how we work for this case -- and perhaps for others in the future. The purpose is always the same: justice for the writer. But things have changed and how we go about getting it is changing as well.

Griefcom has gradually become aware that there are some sizable number of unfortunate situations surrounding the Wizards of the Coast (WotC) subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., many of which will clearly rise to the level of a formal grievance. WotC's practices in the areas of intellectual property, royalty reporting and payment, required author approvals, and several other areas all seem to be questionable. Until now, Grievance Committee has assigned grievances to particular "desks" -- one for short stories, one for work made for hire, one for novels, etc. -- because this allowed each individual Griefcommer to develop an area of expertise, and because most desks, except the ever-busy short story and work made for hire, would have only one case every few months, a reasonable workload for one volunteer.

In the case of WotC, the potential complaints would fall across the lines between the desks, and they are far too numerous and require far too much research for any one person to handle them all, let alone to form a coherent picture of the problem. After consultation with the President and the Board, therefore, and with their consent, Grievance Committee is creating a Task Force -- a subcommittee under Griefcom --to investigate and handle all cases arising from writer relations with Wizards of the Coast, including those deriving from its purchase of TSR, and with its parent company Hasbro Inc.

Paul Melko has been appointed to head up the Task Force.

The first order of business for the Task Force is to determine the scope of the problem, so I'm asking that if you have published with TSR, WotC, or any other Hasbro subsidiary, and you've had problems --even if they haven't quite risen to the level you'd call Griefcom about -- please tell Paul about it, right away. In particular, please look over your royalty statements and see if there are irregularities or things that look suspicious (very round numbers for sales time after time, no sales at all except for occasional large numbers, or any other pattern that just doesn't feel like accurate reporting), and please check Amazon or other worldwide online services for unreported foreign editions (i.e. you can buy a foreign translation but no numbers for it have been reported on your royalty statements) . We need to hear about your other complaints as well, but those are places to look if you're suddenly wondering if everything is as all right as it should be.

Just to find out how numerous and how bad the problems are, we have to break our traditional silence this much. We think the number of writers being harmed may be very large, and we hope to be able to locate as many of them as possible, and to take steps to secure their rights and quite possibly their money. If you've written for WotC --and many of our writers have, they're one of the major markets out there -- and you think there's something rotten at WotC, you should contact Paul at once. He and his Task Force need to know about it. We are more than willing to hear complaints in confidence, if that is your choice.

Also, this is a call for volunteers. We need more staff for the Task Force.

Any member willing to do the sort of pure nuts and bolts Griefcom work of plowing through contracts, royalty statements, correspondence and so forth to establish the what-when-where is very welcome, and no experience is necessary for that, though attention to detail and willingness to learn are helpful; we would be especially happy to have volunteers who have been on the other side of the desk in the publishing industry, and who have worked in the areas of publishing law, accounting, licensing, or rights & permissions. If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Paul or me at the addresses below.

John Barnes Chair, Griefcom, SFWA 3505 E 13th Ave Denver CO 80206 barnesjohn@mac.com

Paul Melko 8039 Chateau Lane Westerville OH 43082 melko@sff.net

http://www.sfwa.org

 

[Nightfall]

So what you're saying Frank is that no one has the right to sue just because WotC should have fixed this before jumping along? Just saying Frank...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its just business and its entirely legal (and based in principles of equity and accounting).

When a company buys out another, unless their contract says otherwise, they succeed in benefit AND liability to all the agreements to which the previous company was party. If you can gain the benefit of a lucrative publishing contract for a surprise best selling book, you must also gain the liability of paying that book's author.

And its not just companies that get caught by this. If you buy a piece of land without checking its history, and it turns out that its a toxic waste dump thats poisoning the area, you're on the hook. That's why (smart) charities always do extensive checks on land that gets donated to them.

If TSR was stiffing its authors (for example), and WotC simply bought them lock, stock and barrel, they have an obligation to pay those authors. TSR (and its successor in interest, WotC) reaped a benefit for which they underpaid, and this shows up on the company's bottom line. Thus TSR (or its successor in interest, WotC) is obligated to pay what they owe those authors.

 

[frankthedm]

So what you're saying Frank is that no one has the right to sue just because WotC should have fixed this before jumping along? Just saying Frank...

Here is what i am saying

It sounds like they want to compile enough complaints for a class action suit :\ even if they have to back in time before WotC bought T$R. By doing that, I have no choice but to wish thier cause ill will. They may have many legitimate complaints, but trying to lump in what TSR did in the 80s and 90's destroys any sympathy i may have had for their cause

 

[Varianor Abroad]

They bought assets and liabilities? Yikes.

 

[francisca]

They may have many legitimate complaints, but trying to lump in what TSR did in the 80s and 90's destroys any sympathy i may have had for their cause

And if they continued any of TSR's poor practices after the buyout, they should just be let off the hook?