Gawd you are late, yeah everybody knows by now that I am not afraid of sending C&D's.however I never had a problem so far with persons or companies I worked with as long as I got paid.
http://cyangmou.deviantart.com/journal/For-all-who-wonders-what-happened-with-S-CK-409378500Contains pretty much all I have to say.
or to make it short:
Azaphrael:
There are way too many good artists being ripped off by people who don't seem to understand the simple concepts of our economy. When you hire someone to do work for you, you gotta pay for said work. On time and in full.
[developer said]“He claims I owe him money. Which is true..."
Nuff said.
situation got solved from the lawyers, there were no "negotiations".
My goal was to get a contract for the money and the rev-share, the developer owes me, he just said that this isn't reasonable.
The only "negotiations" from the developer side was to shut down the game and drag out all into publicity, after that there happened no talking within the deadline.
You can find the first answer the developer gave me in my devart journal, posted at November 5th, which was exactly 1 day after the legally set deadline.
What I learned:
-doing contracts for all the stuff, esp. money and how to share a cake right from the beginning,
-if somebody don't wants to sign contracts abandon him, because if his real intention is to do what's stated in the contract he will sign it
-let you pay in time and don't give a shit about promises, even if the amount of money is ludicrous. Promises aren't save.
-don't be afraid to bring in your lawyers if somebody intends to scam you
-don't work on a profit share situation without contracts
-don't do any work without a contract, the governing law and court of law mentioned in those contracts should be that of your living place or your country
-do your homework regarding to copyright, right of use etc. if you are your own boss and you are creating stuff that should be clear anyways.
-don't give in if you don't get paid
-adjust what you should get paid always to your level of skill and your market value, even if it's a long time project and your skill level and speed changes dramatically during that project+, otherwise your work won't have any value, despite quality
-don't mention to anyone that you are working next to school or next to university on something, otherwise your work might not be of any worth for your client, despite quality
-Don't be afraid to keep up your right, even if a client who don't paid you threatens you that he will destroy you in the web, just because he has 12.000 E-Mail adresses. The law always stands above shitstorms.
-Don't give a shit about your health and never work 12 hours every day for 2 years straight, just to make a living and chase a dream at the same time
-Know your rights, use your rights
Edit: The other article you posted is great as well. It contians a lot of experiences I made for myself so far.