Tokyo Pop's New Contract Ripping Off Artists

[Komiyan]

Thought this was worth a link since we have so many budding artists here.

Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim) dissects the contract being offered to newbie manga artists and why its so truly awful. Very much worth a read, and make sure you keep it in mind if you ever have the luck to be approached with a contract! This thing is so bad :S I'd heard horror stories about Tokyopop before, but jeez..

[K-Dawg]

That's pretty damn rough, I'm actually surprised you can write out a contract like that and get away with it.

[Mvmarcz]

Classy Tokyo Pop


reaaaaal classy

[Bustertheclown]

Holy shit. That's some bad news right there. I feel like I should warn all of the naive little j-pop shoujo manga-ka wannabes out there that believe TOKYOPOP is the second coming, and are right now scrambling to get to get in on the ground floor of such a "friendly" business relationship. I literally laughed at the "moral rights" bit, and nearly choked at the perpetual nonexclusive license part.

The sad part here is, no matter how much word one might wish to get out on this, this crap is clearly targeted at the young and naive, who honest-to-Bob don't have a clue about what's fair and right, and feel their favorite publisher can do no wrong. That means, people could explain until they're blue in the face/fingers, and it will do no good. Surely, TOKYOPOP wouldn't screw young Suzie Q out of her young life's work? They're too awesome for that! They're giving opportunities on a silver platter to suburban fanboys/girls to become the greatest thing since, um... oh hell if I know, I don't read manga.

I'm reminded of the not-so-far-past spate we'd had regarding the appearance of Zuda. The difference here is that Zuda attracted a different sort of people, many of who were really quite in the know about this sort of thing, and they waited like salivating dogs for the contract to come out, then dissected the damned thing word-for-word quite publicly, asking questions and demanding answers from the people involved, until things were made very clear to those who might wish to participate. This TOKYOPOP deal seems to be openly preying on those who will not be nearly as vigilant about retaining the rights and compensations they know they deserve.

It's like a witch using candy and soothing words to lure idiot children into her boiling cauldron. Yuck.

[Ahaugen]

it's a 12 freaking page contract!!! what young person has that kind of time to read it ONCE?!! hell, I read my Selective Service application 5 times before I even began thinking of filling it out. (but that was because it was during English class)

[Paul Escobar]

Lea Hernandez has some choice words about TokyoPop'c contract, too.

My curiosity was tickled enough to read the entire contract. What a pile of greedy, unreasonable bollocks trying (but failing) to come off as a cool, down-to-earth thing. I've worked for years in book, magazine and newspaper publishing, and I've never before seen anything even remotely this vile. The blatant bigotry in the paragraph about the moral rights is just the sad icing on a turd cake. This news should be spread all over the internet with a big fat "WARNING: TokyoPop wants to rape you up the butt" sticker on it.

it's a 12 freaking page contract!!! what young person has that kind of time to read it ONCE?!!

Young or old, anyone who signs a contract they haven't bothered to read is an idiot.

[Komiyan]

Holy shit. That's some bad news right there. I feel like I should warn all of the naive little j-pop shoujo manga-ka wannabes out there that believe TOKYOPOP is the second coming, and are right now scrambling to get to get in on the ground floor of such a "friendly" business relationship. I literally laughed at the "moral rights" bit, and nearly choked at the perpetual nonexclusive license part.

Yeah, that's pretty much why I posted it. There tends to be a problem in the art world where people don't read their friggin' contracts and get screwed over, and it honestly affects the rest of us too. The news about this should really go out so you can warn anyone you know who might think this is a sweet deal

[Linkara]

You know, maybe it's just my vague recollection of the Zuda contract, but looking back on it that didn't seem that bad at all.

Then I took a look at this claptrap and I'm just baffled that TokyoPop thinks they can get away with this.

[Jekkal]

Y'know what? Fuck Tokyopop, Fuck Zuda, and fuck any other print company that thinks by not giving us the terms of the contract in their true legally binding terms, that they can pull shit like this. If you're not old enough and smart enough to understand legalese and/or find a person who can understand it for you, you shouldn't be signing contracts, PERIOD.

I'm tired of this notion that artists need to be talked down to in order to get them to cooperate. It's like there isn't some great big collective of information where people can post about their opinions about such things, or even a place where artists can post their comics to let other people read them without giving up any of their rights! I wonder what we would call such a place...

[Phalanx]

Wow. That's pretty shameless. The sad thing I can still see people who would fall for in in their desperation to get in the industry

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

It sounds like the kind of contact that you'd see in The Simpsons, drafted by that blonde lady that essentially replaced Lionel Hutz. Except real so it's not funny.

[IVstudios]

That's pretty bad. But not all that uncommon, sadly. This sort of thing happens all the time.

[McDuffies]

Ha ha, take that stupid manga cartoonists!

[KWill]

And I thought "You will receive a share in the profits" clauses were bad...

[CJBurgandy]

I know of something good that this contract has done. It's brought Ping out of hiding! *gives her friendly hugs*

[McDuffies]

Meh I can see how people who are unexperienced in contracts and law and stuff may be fooled by this. When you're an amateur who thinks he won't have many chances of breakthrough, you may think that TP is doing you a favor so then why shouldn't have a few extra rights like deciding whether to publish you only after you've finished the whole thing or not to be liable to the content of the pilot...
And to tell the truth, first linked article doesn't do much to dispense it either. Like any article that mentions satan in it's first few paragraphs, it's a lot of noise in the 'conspiracist' manner with a lot of wild guessing and almost no arguements a few of which refer to just about any young artist - publisher communication. I mean, it's not like "if we don't call you then your work is rejected" is something TokyoPop invented. I found myself several times thinking "well, this is not half as bad as he makes it out to be".

Luckily Lea Hernandez article is great, touches only a few things but those that are most problematic about the contract. There's a reason why legal documents are so anal and detailed: when you're in a lawsuit over the terms of a poorly-defined contract, the winner is the one that can pay better lawyers. And in a case of amateur artist vs. publishing company, that certainly isn't going to be the first. Therefore any thing that is can be interpreted in different ways in such contract, can as well be considered as being in favour of a publisher.
"Moral rights" paragraph sounded very ridiculous even when I didn't know what "moral rights" exactly are. Luckily Hernandez quoted it so with that knowledge it's obvious that it means that you're giving up on most of basic rights of an author. The entire thing is idiotic, "fancy shmancy Frenches, they eat frogs and like Jerry Lewis anyway"... we could just as well reject the concept of roman law, since Italians are no better.

[Prettysenshi]

Wow. That's pretty shameless. The sad thing I can still see people who would fall for in in their desperation to get in the industry

omg Phalanx sighting! Heya.

Also, yeah, I read this on Lea's site, and I must say, ROFL. The language in there is just unbelievable. Totally unprofessional to me. But I feel like they felt they could get away with it, because so many wannabe "manga-ka" want to get into the business, and there is this enormous pool of people who would willingly sign away their rights to stuff just to see their work in print.

I think it's crappy of Tokyopop to do what they are doing, but it's a two way street to me. Artists need to be smart, and if know better, but don't take the proper steps after the fact, then what can you really do?

[Rkolter]

If they can get away with it, the more power to them. Nobody is putting a gun to anyone's head and saying "Sign this or I'll draw crappy magna with your brains on that wall." It'll be a life lesson to anyone who signs.

[Robin Pierce]

If they can get away with it, the more power to them. Nobody is putting a gun to anyone's head and saying "Sign this or I'll draw crappy magna with your brains on that wall." It'll be a life lesson to anyone who signs.

Yes because THAT'S what business ethics is about. And before I get anyone saying the inevitable 'lolz business ethics oh ho ho they don't exist', yeah they do, and this isn't them.

Anyways, that's not the point. Yes people should look at contracts closely before they sign. Look at the amount of books tokyopop DOES publish though, are you saying that all those people were demanding to be underminded by a meticulously phrased contract that signed away their rights?
It sets a bad precident in the industry, and yes there are going to be other companies who are going to think 'hey tokyopop can do it let's do it too'.

More power to em my ass, it's not like it doesn't have an effect on the rest of us. Get some perspective.

[IVstudios]

Hear hear.