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.
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.