If you have the choice of taking a long term percentage payment, or don't think its going to work out and someones willing to give you some money up front so you take that instead to skirt the risk, that's okay. But when you see that long term investment blow up and realize you would have made your initial payment a million times over maybe more, to bad. I'm sure there's people who thought google stock was a risk and opted out, or any other scenario, when the company becomes the thing and the price soars, you don't get to whine and get all the money you would have made back. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. This Polish law sounds interesting, almost lets you turn back time and change your decision, sounds like a nasty precedent to set, what kind of world would that be where everyone sells their IP for cash and not choose the percentage, and then if it works out can sue for the money they would have made... This guy got his risk free money that didn't depend on success, I can only imagine he sold more books than he ever would have if he didn't let CDPR take his creation and turn it into something for the masses.
Sapkowski is suing CDProjekt Red over The Witcher rights
- Thread starter VR StarLightPL
- Start date
I think CDPR don't own the IP, just have the rights to use it in a way specified in original agreement. Any other way would be weird. So Netflix had to do the same with Sapkowski.
No, the Netflix series will have nothing to do with the games and very little to do with the books, actually. To a great dismay of the fans. You should read up on it, it will be interesting to see how it develops. For example, they are currently looking for a black or asian girl to play Ciri, so... yeah, along those lines.
I just dislike peoples greed. Not played the games (the wife has them) but after reading this and the reddit I wont be buying any of his books.
When my wife saw a Netflix show was in coming she was over the moon then it was a lot of W T F's coming from her side of the sofa once she saw what the casting people were doing...
When my wife saw a Netflix show was in coming she was over the moon then it was a lot of W T F's coming from her side of the sofa once she saw what the casting people were doing...
There was a MASSIVE raging outburst from fans after alleged casting criteria were revealed. People who make the show were quick to come back and say(I'm paraphrasing): "well, we're considering changing our mind about casting...but not because of a massive amount of angry people that can make or break our show. No, we've just decided it. It was always a plan, everybody just misunderstood". Yea, right. Give me a break.
Netflix: We'll give you a %.
Sapkowski: Nah, it'll be rubbish, you won't make anything. Just give me some Nando's vouchers.
Sapkowski: Nah, it'll be rubbish, you won't make anything. Just give me some Nando's vouchers.
The portion of the law they're citing is only one paragraph out of a bigger picture; I seriously doubt this case will made court. Also our law is not precedent-based like in the US, and it's up to the judge to decide whether the spirit of the law justifies this demand, not only the letter of the law. Of course you can appeal etc.
Regarding this particular case, I think Reds will throw some money his way as a gesture of goodwill. In my personal opinion they should shred him a new one using their law resources, but that could indeed turn into "David vs Goliath" fight, with would be bad PR. He badmouths the game, belittles all gamers regarding them as not intelligent enough, belittles the games as a media form etc. etc. Salty old geezer.
Time will tell how this will unfold, but again I seriously doubt it will make court. Especially that in the case of copyrights there is a pre-trial 5% of the claimed sum fee (which is capped at 100 000 PLN) which needs to be paid in advance... The whole letter seems unprofessional btw., going all "hush hush" about things, while the company is probably legally obliged to disclose this information as they are publicly traded company...
A poo move, for sure.
Regarding this particular case, I think Reds will throw some money his way as a gesture of goodwill. In my personal opinion they should shred him a new one using their law resources, but that could indeed turn into "David vs Goliath" fight, with would be bad PR. He badmouths the game, belittles all gamers regarding them as not intelligent enough, belittles the games as a media form etc. etc. Salty old geezer.
Time will tell how this will unfold, but again I seriously doubt it will make court. Especially that in the case of copyrights there is a pre-trial 5% of the claimed sum fee (which is capped at 100 000 PLN) which needs to be paid in advance... The whole letter seems unprofessional btw., going all "hush hush" about things, while the company is probably legally obliged to disclose this information as they are publicly traded company...
A poo move, for sure.
You sound like Leonard French, but it's the same impression I got… sounds quite mafia-like, "nice rep you got there, would be a shame if anything happened to it…"
Maybe it's a matter of translation, is it the same inflection in Polish? https://www.cdprojekt.com/pl/wp-content/uploads-pl/2018/10/rb-15-2018-wezwanie.pdf
Did they sign a pre-nup? If they didn't then they should have.
It sounds exactly that in Polish. In fact I tried explaining it to another native speaker who is defending Sapkowski here: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/co...=message&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=frontpage
EDIT: wrong comment, this is the right one: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/9l9s8n/psa_because_i_feel_that_nobody_will_do_the/e755jqs/
but both are talking about the blackmail concept ;-)
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PS: I have no idea who this Leonard French guy is. I once worked in a company that went into stock market and the poo we all had to sign was overwhelming (as were the fines for breaking said poo ). There are serious transparency obligations (as well as secrecy, too), encompassing all employees.
Precisely, except he didn't even think that it'd make him >9k in a reasonable time so took the cash & ran.
Guinness thought that Star Wars was utterly idiotic, but still went for %age as he was financially secure and it was worth a punt. If Sapkowski is a reasonably well-selling author in PL (so the 9k isn't life-changing) then it's absolutely on him to not have done the maths especially as an English audience was being targeted.
Pretty sure that if this was in the UK he'd be laughed out of court.
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US copyright lawyer who covers legal shenanigans on Youtube, in this case:
[video=youtube_share;ip4iDl8aX2k]https://youtu.be/ip4iDl8aX2k[/video]
Regardless of law, business practices and whether the dude is likeable: its pathetic to profit so much from someone's work and compensate him so little just because you can.
Guess they dont mind me buying a steam key for their cyberpunk game for a tenner instead of paying full price like I did with W3. Its legal, so who cares about morality.
Guess they dont mind me buying a steam key for their cyberpunk game for a tenner instead of paying full price like I did with W3. Its legal, so who cares about morality.
OTOH, it's really interesting that the "IP industry" is among the few places where "creators" (and later on their "estates", basically extended law firms that never did diddly squat) somehow expect to be paid in perpetuity for something they once made without investing further effort. To a wage slave coder, that concept is hilariously arrogant.
Your research is a little off there, he was approached a few times by them offering royalties and he himself flat out refused. Which was mentioned in this very thread. I assume same thing happened after W1 was released. He choose the lump sum for a license. He wasn't tricked, he wasn't offered chump change, it was a lump sum (actually by-then standards it was a pretty significant amount of money). Also they didn't profit from his work. They took the license for the character and made a game that is happening AFTER his books. Plus he also flat outright refused any creative involvement in the process. So yeah, about "little compensation" you're seriously wrong there, because it was far from little back then, and a serious risk/investment on behalf of CDPR, a then-unknown indie game studio.
Jacques d'Orleans
Banned
Regardless of law, business practices and whether the dude is likeable: its pathetic to profit so much from someone's work and compensate him so little just because you can.
Guess they dont mind me buying a steam key for their cyberpunk game for a tenner instead of paying full price like I did with W3. Its legal, so who cares about morality.
I have to agree with that. Not that there is something wrong about royalties and intelectual property. It's the amount he wants that's ridiculous. The fact that CDP made so much money is because THEY made a good game. And every writer working on that game is just as good as Sapkowski himself. If he wrote the game and they ripped him off, by all means, destroy them at court. But he refused royalties and now he changed his mind. If there is an immoral party in this case, it's him.
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Completely agreed. CDPR should get a cut from all these book sales.