An Artist in Business, Artist Rights, irrevocable, Licensing, Non-exclusive, Sub-licensing

Can You Trust This?

Can You Trust This?

Your choice of hope or despair regarding your artist rights

 

Two definitions you need to know are:
Non-exclusiveNot exclusive, GeneralNon means No; notExclusive means not divided or shared with othersThus non-exclusive means it is divided or shared with others.

IrrevocableIncapable of being recalled or revoked; unchangeable; irreversible; unalterable.

 

Today I received a lovely welcome letter to an art group called “BEST Art Awards” on LinkedIn.  The first action I did was go to the website to read the Terms and FAQ to ensure Artist Rights were being kept in.  I didn’t have to read very far on the Terms page to find out that the art company was going to take an “non-exclusive, irrevocable license” on any art submitted.

Legal terms can sometimes seem like gibberish and are thus either skimmed over quickly or not at all.  Some companies are counting on the Terms and FAQ’s to not really be read or understood.  This leads to creating problems for one and all.  So, please read the two blogs posts mentioned in the next paragraph.  Use the online dictionary to help understand if needed.  Feel free to ask me questions.  You can also go to Copyright Alliance to learn more about the actions and laws for creative and talented folks.

You can read my blog post about Licensing and the US Laws regarding that subject.  You can also find mention of Human Rights that are being violated in another blog post of mine – see the bottom of the page.

In the Terms, Best Art Awards does write this line which is very good: “Any image submitted to the competition may be used by the Best Art Awards, and its media partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of the competition only.”  Had the company left it at that, it would be good to work with.

However, the company goes on to write VERY BAD NEWS for an artist: “You hereby grant the Best Art Awards a non-exclusive, irrevocable license in each Entry throughout the world in all media for any use in connection with the competition.  Best Art Awards may publish any material you submit, post, upload, email or otherwise transmit to it or to the website at its sole discretion and it shall be entitled to make additions or deletions to any such material prior to publication.”

This is from the article I wrote about Licensing:  The article Brand Licensing 101 states ” 1. Protect your intellectual property.  Protecting your intellectual property (IP) is one of the most important factors behind licensing your brand. The last thing you want is to accidentally give someone full, unfettered access to your brand assets without getting anything in return.”

An Artist in Business does certainly have intellectual property!

Alright, now it’s time for YOU to answer the question for yourself:  Can You Trust This?

 

ILIA

 

 

 

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