3 ms·

"Royalty-like payments do not have the same legal force that royalties; they're enforced through the normal means of resolving contract disputes rather than thr

"Royalty-like payments do not have the same legal force that royalties; they're enforced through the normal means of resolving contract disputes rather than through the application of copyright law." DC did use the term royalties in their work-for-hire contract as of 2008: http://jimshooter.com/2011/09/few-more-thoughts-regarding-art-return.html/ http://jimshooter.com/2011/09/few-more-thoughts-regarding-ar... At any rate it's not clear to me what you mean by "normal means of resolving contract disputes rather than through the application of copyright law". Once you have a contract between the parties it's going to be resolved primarily as a contract dispute. It's not going to be resolved the way someone posting something on the pirate bay will be resolved. I'm not saying what you wrote is incorrect so much as I don't think it's going to make much of a practical difference whether you call it a royalty or not.

gamblor956 6y ago
Yes, you can call something X all you like. That does not mean the law (or specifically, the courts) will actually treat it as X. DC specifically changed the terminology of its "royalty" payments because they were not actually royalties, but calling them royalties was causing headaches for its legal dept with respect to licensing, because the existence of "royalty" payments implied that DC was not the owner of the IP, and thus that they had to seek additional licenses from the actual owners of the IP.) And that is why Marvel switched away from calling them royalties a long time ago. Copyright law has a special regime for enforcement. I.e., statutory damages, etc. It applies in addition to relief available under contract law. However, for "royalty" payments that aren't actually royalties, only contract law remedies are available.

3 ms·

"Royalty-like payments do not have the same legal force that royalties; they're enforced through the normal means of resolving contract disputes rather than thr

by anotherman554 6y ago

gamblor956 6y ago
Yes, you can call something X all you like. That does not mean the law (or specifically, the courts) will actually treat it as X. DC specifically changed the terminology of its "royalty" payments because they were not actually royalties, but calling them royalties was causing headaches for its legal dept with respect to licensing, because the existence of "royalty" payments implied that DC was not the owner of the IP, and thus that they had to seek additional licenses from the actual owners of the IP.) And that is why Marvel switched away from calling them royalties a long time ago. Copyright law has a special regime for enforcement. I.e., statutory damages, etc. It applies in addition to relief available under contract law. However, for "royalty" payments that aren't actually royalties, only contract law remedies are available.