Contributors who want to be featured in more projects have a powerful new option that Viking is unveiling: “the Derivative Waiver.”
In a recent interview with Jeremy Hanke he went on to say:
“when we first started the Creative Community [of World of Depleted], we wanted to make the most fair possible default agreement that everyone would agree to as a Contributor. However, we knew that the most fair option did not actually mean the one that is most logical in ALL situations. While there are no hierarchies at World of Depleted, there are some types of art that take a lot more time and man-hours than others. As it stands now, under the default agreement, if Contributor A is making a film and he’d like to use Contributor B’s photo in his film, he may automatically do so, so long as he’s willing to equally split the profits he makes with Contributor B. Now, if it took Contributor B a few hours to take the photo and customize it before sending it in, but it took Contributor A a few months to make his film, is Contributor A probably going to want to equally split the profits? Probably not.
(Of course, for those creators that honestly don’t really care how much profit they might see, who just want to get their work out there, obviously this is a moot point. However, for many folks, this doesn’t seem like a reasonable expectation.)
As such, the ‘Derivative’ Waiver essentially states that contributors may choose to allow their work to be used with no revenue share in Derivative works, but they will retain revenue share in any situation in which their work is featured outside of that Derivative work. For an example, let’s go back to Contributor A’s film and Contributor B’s photo. If Contributor B has signed a Derivative waiver, then Contributor A can use his image in his film without revenue share, so long as he clearly credits him in the film’s credits.
However, now Contributor A decides to make a T-Shirt for the film that directly features Contributor B’s photo. They would now split the profits, since the essential part of this product is the non-Derivative image of Contributor B. Another example would be musicians and score composers, where they sign the waiver so that filmmakers can use the work in their Depleted projects without revenue share, but, if they wish to sell a soundtrack album for that project, then they would equally share in the revenue from that album.
I think this will make a lot more people actively interested in using other Contributors content, which will in turn get greater publicity for those Contributors who’ve chosen this route.”
Score Composer zero-project will be the first Contributor to not only sign the Waiver, but have it posted directly on his upcoming Contributor page. (zero-project has two songs that will be featured in the upcoming film, Day 419.) Director Jeremy Hanke had this to say, “I’m extremely excited that an artist of zero-project’s calibre is leading the way on this. I think this is going to encourage a lot of other Contributors to hop on board, which will be great for the entire community!”
zero-project is slated to join the official roster of Contributors next month when the Music section rolls out. A prolific composer, zero-project has over 91 songs that other Contributors will be able to use. He is also one of the top drawing artists at the largest creative commons community for CC music, jamendo.com .
This is great – and I may be of the few, but I am more willing to support artists like zero-project who recognize this is one great way media and content can flow.
as a side note – will we be able to purchase the songs through WoD (or some place) or will have to wait for an official soundtrack tied to the release of the film?
also – just to kinda make sure – if someone contributes say, photos and is willing to have them from the getgo be used in this fashion, they can state that fact and have it listed with the photos when they contribute? (meaning could a person, in the future, search through the content using a derivative type tag word?)
Hey Doc,
Sorry for the delay on this one!
Everyone will be able to buy the sound tracks in CD-master quality, but we are planning to have .mp3 versions of all the music contributors make available that anyone will be able to listen to. Contributors will be able to use the Master quality files for their own projects and have access to them in the Contributor section!
And, in response to your second question, aboslutely! We will have some sort of tag system in place to assist with people finding these elements easily. (Still working out the specifics on this one!) Each Contributor will have the opportunity to submit a pre-signed waiver for new content they submit and then any future Contributor will be able to use that content, whether it be photos, music, etc., in any of their creations. The contracts will be able to be downloaded and printed with the content that is downloaded from within the Contributor site!
-Jeremy