S36666WB%ETSUACAD.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu (Brian Wright) (10/02/90)
Hello,
I need some advice in this subject. A friend and I are collaborating
on a piece of software to be published fairly soon. What I am wanting is some
input from those of you who have published commercial software. What kinds
of pitfalls can we try to avoid? What is a fair percentage that we can expect
on the software sales? Should the contract be looked over by a lawyer before
we sign? If so, just any lawyer? I don't have a personal lawyer. What things
should we be aware of? How thorough should the contract be? How much can we
be liable for? How much is the publisher liable for? How much should the
publisher be liable for?
I hate to bombard with questions, but we would like to be informed.
Anyone in a position to help, please respond. You don't necessarily need to
answer all of the questions above. Just give your responses as you have seen
them from your perspective, after the publishing.
BTW, we haven't signed the contract yet.
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||To steal from one is plagiarism. To steal from many is research. ||
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||---Brian Wright | / / ||
||---s36666wb@etsuacad.etsu.edu | \ \/ / Only Amiga ||
||---Commercial Artist and Amigaphile| \/\/ Makes It Possible!! ||
=======================================================================knoll@well.sf.ca.us (John Knoll) (10/05/90)
I went through all of this about two years ago. Definitely get a lawyer, the legal fees are well spent. I hired a law firm that specializes in software contracts. No matter how good your relationship with your publisher, the first draft of the contract will be almost totally one sided, and will need to be argued to make it fair. Watch out for: What happens if the publisher doesn't bring it to market in a reasonable time? what are your options? Who owns the source code? Royalty rates vary from 5% up to 20%. What kind of rate you can expect depends on the state of your product. If the publisher must devote resources to writing a manual and finishing the code, Q&A, etc., you will probably be offered a royalty on the lower end. Be suspicious of anyone who offers you more than 20%. What is motivating them to offer so much? Ask yourself: What is this company's interest in your product? How does it fit into their product line? Do they understand your product? Do you get a royalty on a version ported to another platform? Does your royalty change if you deliver the program late? By how much? If you are not involved in working on a version 2.0 of your product, how does your royalty change? Is your royalty based on wholesale units less returns (standard) or some other count? How are the royalties calculated? Watch out for things like "less fully burdened costs" in descriptions of royalty calculation. (this allows them to make huge deductions from their revenue before royalty calculations are done) Make them itemize! Well, there's a few things to check. Good luck!
smithwik@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (R. Michael Smithwick -- FSN) (10/12/90)
["Color me amazed Cooper"] In article <32077@nigel.ee.udel.edu> S36666WB%ETSUACAD.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu (Brian Wright) writes: >Hello, > > I need some advice in this subject. A friend and I are collaborating >on a piece of software to be published fairly soon. What I am wanting is some >input from those of you who have published commercial software. What kinds >of pitfalls can we try to avoid? What is a fair percentage that we can expect >on the software sales? Should the contract be looked over by a lawyer before >we sign? If so, just any lawyer? I don't have a personal lawyer. What things >should we be aware of? How thorough should the contract be? How much can we >be liable for? How much is the publisher liable for? How much should the >publisher be liable for? > > I hate to bombard with questions, but we would like to be informed. >Anyone in a position to help, please respond. You don't necessarily need to >answer all of the questions above. Just give your responses as you have seen >them from your perspective, after the publishing. > > BTW, we haven't signed the contract yet. > First of all, don't EVER sign the "standard" contract. Be willing to spend several months if need be in conract negotiations, and up to a couple grand on a good lawyer. I won't cover things mentioned in a previous posting, but one thing to be careful of is how do you get out of the contract if the company screws up? First of all, make sure that the contract specifies that YOU own the copyright, not your publisher. Otherwise if they go under, you could be in deep kimchee. Also, insist on a minimum yearly royalty, based on some assumed amount of sales that you would be satisfied with, say, 2000 units a year. If they sell less, they must pay you for 2000 units in order to retain publishing rights. This ensures a certain level of permformance on their part and lets you get the program back if they fail or just decide to stop spending money on it. Typically there will be a clause covering breach of contract and will specify a grace period to make good on the breach. Try to make this period as short as possible (a month or less), since in most cases the company will be in breach due to non-payment of royalties. It is in your best interest to get the program back as soon as possible, especially if Christmas is coming up soon. Ensure that you get copies of the registered owners list. This will give you a lot of leverage with future publishers should your current one go under (and for that matter, if things look bad, hold on to an upgrade. In the case the company does go under, or drops your program, you can then offer the upgrade direct and recover any lost funds while looking for a new publisher). Make sure the contract covers what to do with foreign language translations and ports to other machines. Try to ensure you own the name. If you get your rights back, its nice to be able to continue publishing under the name it is already known by. Talk to other authors the company publishes with and get their opinion on things. DON'T EVER LET A ROYALTY CHECK SLIDE! Even if they have a good excuse, if they miss a payment send them a breach-of-contract letter immediately. It will keep them on their toes. The length of the contract shouldn't be more than 5 years. Enough for now. Let us know what happens. >> mike smithwick << Any opinions are my own since nobody else would ever want them. "Colonize Cyberspace!"