THIS AFFECTS EVERY ARTIST ON DA, SO HEADS UP!

Sorry to make you wait for this info, but I wanted to make it as clear as possible, in plain English except for the parts that say "THE SUBMISSION AGREEMENT SAYS".
So here goes. If you don't understand, ask, but THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ALL ARTISTS!!!
Did you know?  At one time Motown Records owned a great number of songs I had written. Because of the brilliant legal mind of my friend Steven, I am one of the few artists who was ever able to get a catalogue of songs back from Motown.

I had an informative conversation with Mr Steven Brown Esq., who has championed and helped me, as well as numerous artists from around the world. I knew Steven would completely understand this licensing agreement. He has a special talent for copyright and licensing issues. He has helped me to understand many contracts and licenses. As an artist, I have had to deal with many situations, that if it were not for sound advice, I would have been taken advantage of. He told me many things that

ALL ARTISTS NEED TO KNOW about the SUBMISSION AGREEMENT.



First of all, Steven told me that we are agreeing to let Deviantart.com "use your cache', your name or likeness which has value that can be used for commercial purpose FOREVER (NO! not good! ), even after you are gone from the site. You don't want to do that! That must be changed." THEN, he said "there's no cut off point for rights of sub-licenses. There must be a cut-off point. Plain and simple. The whole reason for a contract is clarity and there is no clarity about certain issues for artists. For instance: when you inform DA that you are leaving and you have got rid of all of your deviations, that should be the cut off point. That means at that point there are no more rights for DA. This is not a difficult point. There MUST be a cut-off point. And, if DA has made arrangements for sub-licenses, then THEY must inform the sub-licensees that you are no longer associated with DA, and that is the cut off point for their rights. If it's a matter that DA has made brochures, and your art or likeness is on those brochures, then NO MORE NEW BROCHURES CAN BE MADE WITH YOUR ART OR LIKENESS OR NAME. Period. This needs to change if the contract is to be deemed fair for the artists."



Article 4. The word "perpetual" means forever and therefore is wildly inappropriate used in this sense.



IT SAYS IN THE SUBMISSION AGREEMENT:

Name and Likeness. Artist hereby grants to deviantART:
1.      a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use Artist's name(s), group name, photograph and/or likeness(es) and biographical materials in connection with the distribution, exploitation, promotion, marketing and advertising of the Artist Materials, and the deviantART Site(s)as described hereunder, during the Term;



Why would an artist agree to this? "Forever and royalty free?" This is extremely unfair to the artist. Your art, your name, your likeness used forever with no cut off point? Why would you agree to this? That is why there must be a cut off point at the end of the term of association. The word perpetual needs to come out of the contract. Period. The words "for the term of this license" should be added after the last line, so that it reads: "and the deviantART Site(s)as described hereunder, during the Term of this license."





Article 3 is very badly written, and does not make the artist clear about what it means. Steven could not believe that this was done purposefully, so giving the benefit of the doubt, we must assume the typo of the mention of "3b" was a mistake. Steven had big problems about the changes that can be made by DA to our art. "The whole reason for a contract is clarity and there is no clarity about certain issues for artists."



IT SAYS IN THE SUBMISSION AGREEMENT:

3.    License. to Use Artist Materials. Artist hereby grants to deviantART a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term:

to display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any electronic means (including analog and digital), and electronically publish any or all of the Artist Materials, including any portion thereof, and to include them in compilations for such purposes, by any and all means and media now known or hereafter devised (for avoidance of doubt, the rights granted to deviantART hereunder include the rights to make Artist Materials available on deviantART Site(s), third-party websites and electronic devices);
to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter the Artist Materials (e.g., change the size) and use the Artist Materials as described in Section 3(b); and

There is no 3b. And, by giving permission to change one thing, it is possibly giving permission to change other things.



Article 14. Survival. If the term of the license ends, then there is no survival. This goes round in a circle and does not really make sense. How can things survive if there is a termination? There is no clarity here.





IT SAYS IN THE SUBMISSION AGREEMENT:



Survival. The provisions of Sections 1, 3(e), 4(b) 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 shall survive any termination of this Agreement. In addition, any sublicenses granted to third parties for the display of Artist Materials on electronic devices pursuant to Section 3 shall survive any termination of this Agreement



The point that Steven made about this article is that an artist's name, likeness and art CANNOT be used for commercial purposes after the cutoff point of the term of the contract ends, AND THERE MUST BE A CUTOFF POINT !

These are extremely important issues that concern us all. This must be made right for all artists!

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