Friday, February 1, 2008

A fair agreement between artists and contractors

A friend recently shared some language from an agreement for a competition that I thought quite appropriate to art and artists in Second Life:

"The organization has the right to use your submitted (content) for (X) exhibition(s). (X Company) may also use your work for marketing and promotional purposes directly related to (X Company) and (X) exhibition(s), with the (content creator's) approval and appropriate citation/credit."

This strikes me as fair to all parties concerned, and a good example of how a contract between an artist and an exhibitor/contractor should read.

2 comments:

Camilla said...

I think we often just make assumptions about the use of artistic content. And what a company assumes, and what the artist assumes, can be vastly different!

I think it would be a good idea for every artist/writer/content creator to put a version of this on a note card now, and keep it in your inventory. Then when a gallery or a company, or even another individual approaches you about displaying or using your work, you've already got something ready to just pull out and fill in the blanks. Any negotiated changes could be added at that time.

Of couse, the old saying that a contract is only worth the paper it is printed on still applies. There is no legal body to go to for violations, so it is technically unenforceable. But it can at least serve as a "gentlemen's agreement" so that all parties concerned are on the same page.

Sorry I rambled on so long! I started writing about this, and it just kept coming. :)

Princess Ivory

Anonymous said...

It appears to me after close reading, that the wording of the agreement above is ambiguous with regards to the company using submitted content for its own purposes NOT associated with the exhibition(s).

I would suggest to add the line: "Any additional use of the (content) by (X Company) for purposes not related to (X) exhibition(s) or event(s) must be negotiated by (content creator(s))and (X Company) separately.