“You grant and assign to Zuda, its successors, licensees and assigns, solely and exclusively, in any and all languages and media, whether now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, for the term of copyright, all rights in and to the Material (collectively, the “Rights”). As used herein, “Material” means the Submission and the literary work written and/or drawn, and/or to be written and/or drawn, by You as well as other adaptations or versions thereof now existing or hereafter created, whether created by You, Zuda or third parties, including the title of the work, the art and script comprising the work and the concepts, plots, themes, storylines, characters (including names and images), environmental settings, devices, characterizations, logos, trademarks and designs and other elements to the extent included in the work.”

The contract says the creators retain copyright, but after all that, it’s pretty much an ownership of rights with few benefits of ownership because you grant them to Zuda for as long as you hold copyright. It’s like having moral rights in name but not practice, I think. You develop this story and characters, and then DC can do whatever we want with them, including creating new content, and we own all the rights — they pay royalties, though.

The statement from TP says that they cannot create and own new material based on your work. I’m not seeing anything in the “pact” that specifically excludes that, though.

I should stop — I don’t like commenting on other companies’ contracts, but this interests me because I’ve been pondering for a while how publishers can insure they benefit from the investment they put into creators without stepping on those creators’ rights. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no way to get real insurance. You just have to try do good by creators and hope to gain their loyalty.

[...] Draper Carlson (who’s been covering the hell out of this story by the way) already has a statement back from the company. Note this little piece: Making the contracts available to all is just the first [...]

A different load of happy horseshit in clearer language.

Not being down with the Zuda agreements, either, I’d dismissed their contest as likewise useless (and bullshit). I’d be interested in a side-by-side comparison that demonstrates Zuda is worse.

I do recall that their contracts were vague and cutesy, too, which is why I made fun of them in the lolcomics LJ:

http://lolcomics.livejournal.com/5157.html

Last year, Fleen did what I think is a pretty good dissection of the Zuda Contract:
http://www.fleen.com/archives/2007/09/25/raw-zudanotes-ii-rights-agreement/

UNLIKE the TP contract, it is written in English, with childish jokes about droit moral, and “Hey, baby, I’ll do my best but sometimes I’m gonna forget who you are.”

Rights-wise, it’s not good (which is why I can’t believe anyone with a frontal lobe would enter and OH MY GOD am I tired of hearing “I’m not giving them my BEST idea”) it’s still not as bad as TP’s.

Fleen concludes:
“Four elements of the Creator’s Bill of Rights — right to accounting, legal counsel, prompt payment, and original artwork — are addressed in this contract. In fact, as others have pointed out, Zuda is recommending that you get a lawyer to advise you on the contracts before you decide to submit, so that’s actually progress. Unfortunately, the other eight — especially the first, The right to full ownership of what we fully create — are wavied under this contract.”

And there’s no reasonable argument that TP’s contract is better after that. Their is no waiving of droit moral, there is a right to legal counsel, not an LA-based commercial arbitrator picked by TP, and so on.

I never thought I’d say this, but if one must choose a woodchipper to throw themselves into, DC’s is better than TP’s.

Me, I’d worry about the work being presented in some ways that won’t support the creator’s name — if that can’t be effectively presented, how is my art going to survive?

Also, no one makes $2 million on global manga. I’m guessing that even $10,000 would be a stretch for most properties.

Also, let’s say you are the lucky person who creates a hit. Tokyopop could potentially make $2 million in the first year, and you would make $750. Perhaps in the second year, the property cools because the next greatest thing comes along, and your creation only makes $10,000. You have certainly lost a boat load of income. And what if Tokyopop goes ahead and makes a side deal with a movie production company. Your movie rights to your own creation could be tied up in court for a decade before you get them back.

Simple contracts usually mean somebody is going to get taken for a ride.

Utter tangent: This controversy really highlights the fact that aspiring “manga” creators don’t seem to have much of an option outside of TokyoPop. Would there be such an uproar if there were four or five other such competitions that might treat the creators better? If so, we might be able to just say, “Eh, stay away from this one, it isn’t good for your health.” But there really isn’t an alternative venue, unless one would like to brave the American industry. For whatever reason – intimidation, disinterest – OEL creators don’t really see that as a comparable option.

Unless there are other options…?

(There are alternatives for BL/”yaoi” OEL creators. There is even a BL anthology magazine. But that sprung from a niche market/grassroots community and is consumed by only a small number of women. I have no idea how their contracts compare with TokyoPop, either.)

[...] Draper Carlson got the same e-mail I did, and Slave Labor editor-in-chief Jennifer de Guzman does a quick comparison with Zuda: This means the Tokyopop Pilot Program a lot less exploitive than Zuda, I think — that [...]

See, now THAT is plain language. This is a useful clarification. Too bad it isn’t in the contract, though.

And I still don’t buy that comics creators’ names ever should be cut from any media presentation. It isn’t like Tokyopop won’t find a way to put their logo in there somewhere no matter HOW small the screen is… so why can’t the content creator get the same consideration? etc, etc….

They can say whatever they want, but if they really care about doing the right thing, they’ll toss the crappy contract and write one which won’t be vilified by working comics creators as the worst contract in the history of comics.

[*] It might be evidence in a lawsuit. Oh, wait, no lawsuits — only arbitration!

But not, we should note, in French.