Slashdot Mirror
Copyright and Webcomics - A New Trend?
Selanit writes "There's an article at Publisher's Weekly reporting that Seven Seas Entertainment, an up-and-coming publisher of English-language manga, has adopted a new copyright policy. When contracting to publish webcomics like Earthsong or Inverloch, they offer the artists full control over the copyright. This is highly unusual in comics - most companies use joint-ownership arrangements. The founder of Seven Seas asked himself 'For properties that were already written and illustrated without any input from Seven Seas, how could I justify asking for partial ownership?' And apparently, the answer led him to abandon that practice. It'll be interesting to see if this helps his company attract new talent. (There's a previous Slashdot article that may be relevant.)"
Exclusive licensing does not necessarily give the licensee the right to sublicense the work. Transfer of copyright means the transfer of all rights to the one on the receiving end.
Not to mention that exclusive licensing may also be limited to a particular country, thus allowing a copyright holder to sign exclusive licensing agreements with multiple partners in different countries and expanding royalty income while reducing his legal liability. The deals may (and often do) require that the licensee prosecute any unlicensed distribution within the covered country.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
So we have http://www.penny-arcade.com/, http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/, http://www.officialwdc.com/comic.php, http://www.pvponline.com/, http://ww.somethingpositive.net/ and http://www.megatokyo.com/. Any other favorites?
Comic Genesis really isn't really comparable. Now Keenspot is a bit more comparable (as it does print collection books) but only mildly so. The difference is, (AFAIK) Seven Seas isn't a webcomic distributor (like Keenspot, Modern Tales and Comic Genesis). It's a comic distributor, that happens to distribute some webcomics. Comic Genesis has more in common with Geocities then it does with Seven Seas.
Not that I'm knocking Comic Genesis. I have many webcomics I read hosted with them, and am active (for me anyway) on their message boards.
Having said that, Str's right, this isn't anything new. Plan Nine Publishing does publish webcomics (and isn't a host or a print on demand system, although I believe it does utilize print on demand, it doesn't accept anyone) and doesn't claim ownership on the work.
This current thing came about when, recently, people signed to Tokyopop contracts starting comparing them. There's been a lot of discussion recently about this, about Dave Sim's attempt to negotiate with DC over art for a three page Fables story, and self publishing in general over at Warren Ellis's Engine forums.
I could get links for all this, but I am far too lazy.
The founder of Seven Seas apparently kept track of all the discussions and made a decision to do what he did, which would be great if it became a trend. Don't see it happening, but still.
Discipline Global Mobile, the record label founded by Robert Fripp of King Crimson, has this same policy for the music it publishes - the copyright remains with the artist ("with whom it rightfully resides" IIRC).
You can read more about the admirable aims of DGM here .
Here's an excerpt:
The business aims of Discipline Global Mobile are....
* to help music come into the world which would otherwise be unlikely to do so, or under conditions prejudicial to the music and/or musicians.
* to operate in the market place, while being free of the values of the market place.
* to help the artists and staff of DGM achieve what they wish for themselves.
* to find its audience.
* to be a model of ethical business in an industry founded on exploitation, oiled by deceit, riven with theft and fuelled by greed.
There's also more of Fripp's sardonic sense of humor, and one of the better explanations of "standard practice" record label-artist contracts (not for the squeamish!).
Perhaps the rate of adoption of this sort of ethical business model by the music industry will at least serve as a lower bound for those wondering about the rate of adoption in other media.
I guess I've grown up in the indy comic culture. Other than the huge audience Marvel and DC comics already have, I don't see a reason to join those companies. There are so many possibilities for indy publishing out there. Granted, distribution is a problem for paper comics, but this is the Internet. We have the distribution thing covered.
My comic is 2 years old and has an international "distribution." My readership is roughly 400 and I've sold maybe 30 comics for actual money, which isn't a bad percentage as far as webcomics go. With on demand printing services like Comix Press and Lulu.com and hosting services like Comic Genesis and Drunk Duck, international distribution isn't as big a problem. Getting huge IS a problem because there's so much competition out there.
Although it's great to hear about webcomics making it big, they're just a very small percentage of online comics. Most people will never see any profits from their comics. There's no way to compete with big comic companies like Marvel in the print world. There's no way to compete with big comics in Internet either. Don't try. Webcomics have their niche. Find your group of readers and don't expect to be big. It's a good time, not a living.