I Own It All
I left this tween website last year April, I never signed a contract. They paid me after two years when I finally asked for some compensation rather than the “we will be huge” mantra they spouted each time I looked like I was broke.
However, after letting the clouds lift, I realized I never signed a contract. Therefore all the art I created for them is my sole property. “That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.” I never was offered one, nor did I ask for one. A vague deal memo was sent to me, promising all back pay, but if that did happen, I would’ve been owed six figures or more.
Why don’t I contact them? Because on my last invoice for them, the founder crossed out my total and deducted three days. Three days. For over 2 and a half years I worked on promises. I worked it out to $13 a day that I was getting paid. You can say that the invoice is an implied contract. But no where in the invoice was a statement that they owned the rights, they were only paying for my time.
Lesson for designers, you need a contract stating the rights to the work you do for a client. And that goes for the client as well. Then you will not have to blog about it and gripe like I just did.:O)
