Bill of Rights for Comics Creators

[Alex H]

I wrote an article about this a while back (here) and thouth people might be interested in the ideas. (Check link for the background on the BoRfCC).

A Bill of Rights for Comics Creators

For the survival and health of comics, we recognize that no single system of commerce and no single type of agreement between creator and publisher can or should be instituted. However, the rights and dignity of creators everywhere are equally vital.

Our rights, as we perceive them to be and intend to preserve them, are:

1. The right to full ownership of what we fully create.

2. The right to full control over the creative execution of that which we fully own.

3. The right of approval over the reproduction and format of our creative property.

4. The right of approval over the methods by which our creative property is distributed.

5. The right to free movement of ourselves and our creative property to and from publishers.

6. The right to employ legal counsel in any and all business transactions.

7. The right to offer a proposal to more than one publisher at a time.

8. The right to prompt payment of a fair and equitable share of profits derived from all of our creative work.

9. The right to full and accurate accounting of any and all income and disbursements relative to our work.

10. The right to prompt and complete return of our artwork in its original condition.

11. The right to full control over the licensing of our creative property.

12. The right to promote and the right of approval over any and all promotion of ourselves and our creative property.


Thoughts?

[Florian Hufsky]

basically 1. is what most artists are in dire (right word?) need of right now.

under the current systems the contracts you (need to) make (sell yourself to labels/publishers) are perfectly legal (unfortunately). and it's probably not the target of the pp to alter contract laws to forbid such contracts (although it might be feasible...).

but what we can do (and what i think that the cultural and media revolution filesharing sparked) probably will do:

liberate artists from the need of big labels / big publishers.


nowadays you can distribute your work via the web. without a big publisher you can reach millions of fans. you don't need awful contracts to get rich and famous.

more and more artists start to realize this: clap your hands say yeah, jaymay, arctic monkeys, the yeah yeah yeahs, introversion, the behemoth, ...

and even if they still need/want a label for distribution (ie the behemoth for ps2 games, the arctic monkeys for music) they are in a way better position if they already are famous - the internet for the win.



so... basically it's a bit about the artists standing up and fight for their rights - AND the pirate parties supporting them.



the only thing where artists and the pirate parties may collide is the private, noncommercial sharing of cultural goods. while the pirate parties say that it should be completely legal (noncommercial sharing! always remember that!) artists (understandably) say they want to control how their work is spread.

the problem is: while people have already decided with their feet (people feel that private, noncommercial sharing is perfectly fine), it might drive artists back to labels & publishers (shiny DRM makes me control who gets my work (note: this is a wrong assumption))

and therefore keep them in the current, awful contract situation.