Pixelation

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Anlina on November 03, 2008, 06:27:39 am

Title: Sprite artist contracts - artist's rights?
Post by: Anlina on November 03, 2008, 06:27:39 am
I'm just beginning to venture out into the world of freelancing sprite art, and I was wondering what is standard (if there is a standard) in freelance contracts, regarding transferring rights vs licencing rights to sprite work?

Is it typical for companies to expect full intellectual property rights for sprite art to be transferred to them, rather than be granted a license (irrevocable, perpetual, exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, etc)?

I'm really very wary about the idea of giving up my intellectual property rights to artistic works, as there are all sorts of implications in that and I really don't want to put myself in a position where I'm going to screw myself over in the long run because I decided to take one short term contract. At the same time, I don't want to be unreasonable and be far less flexible than the general community of sprite artists.

The work in question doesn't really have the potential to be licensed out to multiple companies or resold, nor do I intend to create derivative works from it, though it would involve original designs. I can't help but imagine all kinds of (paranoid?) scenarios where I might end up regretting transferring rights. So what's standard? How do you deal with intellectual property rights when doing contract work?