Non-exclusive licenses and charging for use of my old work

Isaiah Sherman

Hey guys,

Did a search and an old (similar) thread got trolled by someone saying no one should get paid for their work, so I'm making a new thread.

Please do not derail this thread into a discussion of your opinions of licensing.

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Anywho, here's the deal: someone from Brazil contacted me to see if I had a non-exclusive license for the sword models I made so they could include them into a Square Enix contest they're working on.

How would I go about charging for this? Not just how much to charge, but do I actually need to get some kind of license? Do I go to the grubberment to get something like that?

From my Google search it sounds like they just get temporary use of my work... do I outline how much they get to use my work and for how long? Do I charge based on the duration they get to use the product on top of the production cost itself?

Any info would be great, thanks!

ScudzAlmighty

I don't know about fee's, but I think you would have to specify that they are only allowed to use the models for this one specific contest.

Isaiah Sherman

Would I just write up a contract of my own?

ScudzAlmighty

I should think so. There's probably other pc'ers that could answer better but I think you just need a text doc that states the user has permission to use the modles provided for X specific purpose. Kinda like the readme files that come with free texture packs?

Ghostscape

Google around and you should be able to find a lawyer-approved contract, whatever that freelance book for artists is that people always recommend has sample contracts (fake edit: I googled it - https://www.graphicartistsguild.org/handbook/)

If you have not sold exclusive rights to the aforementioned work, and did not perform the work under a work-for-hire agreement or something similar (ie, is it personal work?) Then you have the rights to your work and can sell exclusive or non-exclusive rights to it.

Non-exclusive rights mean that you retain the rights to use it as well, but you are granting them the ability to use it. You can further specify in your contract the specific rights they have (ie, use in a specific contest) and which rights you retain (all of them without exception).

A simple contract that you type up should be fine so long as it is clear. A simple "I grant you non-exclusive rights to use X Y and Z for the purposes of entry into The Square Contest Being Held From xx/xx/12 to yy/yy/12 and retain for myself all full rights to the work forever" ought to be enough protection - a contract is evaluated by a judge when you take people to court over misuse so clarity and specificity is what is important, not a certain level of legalese - legalese just tends to make things very specific.

Isaiah Sherman

Thanks for the info. Just for clarity, I'm not concerned about finding out what to charge, as I already have a good grasp on that. I'm just not sure about writing up a non-exclusive license / contract / whatever.

This seems like good info: http://contracts.lawyers.com/contracts/Contract-Basics.html

Any one else have thoughts?