Contract cancellation

[ehbgamer]

Hello,

I have contracted an artist to make my game graphics, but unfortunately I was not satisfied with his art, so I decided not to continue with him. I have signed a contract to give him a percent of my game revenue.
What shall I do to cancel this contract? Can I just forget about it as I can prove that the game art is not his art?
I know there is no lawyers in tis forum, but I'm looking for your expertise!

Regards,

[MattInglot]

I'm not a lawyer but I can tell you right now that without seeing the contract or having much more specific details about the relevant clauses, you are not going to be able to get useful advice here.

Does your contract not include provisions for what happens if you decide you don't wish to use his art?

Personally if I were in your situation I would attempt to negotiate with him directly (assuming the contract's not in your favor) and see if he would accept a lump sum of money that is fair for the amount of time he worked for you.

[alfie]

Hello,

I can prove that the game art is not his art?

Regards,

What did he do?, try and pass some art off as is?

As for cancelling the contract, it will depend on what provisions/clauses you have in the contract. And also what your obligations are when you cancel e.g. notify him in writing within 7 days etc.

Did a lawyer draw up the contract for you?

Alfie

[ggambett]

What did he do?, try and pass some art off as is?
I think he meant he won't be using this artist's art for his game, not that the artist is plagiarizing other's work.

[ehbgamer]

Hello,

Thanks for your fast response.

here is the contract:




ART LICENSE AGREEMENT

[My name]


Dear [Artist name]:

This will confirm the understanding between you and [My Name] regarding work to be done by you as more fully described below:
You are responsible for drawing all game art including:-

[some details about what should be done, like Hero ship and all its related sprites, all backgrounds, etc...]

1. You agree to deliver the Work to us in a manner and form satisfactory to us.
2. We may require additional art assets during the development process and may require a reasonable amount redo/corrections for submitted art if necessary.
3. Upon acceptance of the Work, we agree to pay you [percent] of the net profit from selling our game [game name] containing your art.

4. You expressly acknowledge that the material contributed by you hereunder, and your services hereunder, are being specially ordered and commissioned by us for use in connection with [game name]. We shall be the sole and exclusive owner and copyright proprietor of all rights and title in and to the results and proceeds of your services hereunder in whatever stage of completion.

5. You agree that we may make any changes or additions to the Work prepared by you, which we in our sole discretion may consider necessary, and may engage others to do any or all of the foregoing, with or without attribution to you. You further agree to waive any so-called moral rights in he Work.

6. You represent that, except with respect to material furnished to you by us, you are the sole author of the Work and all of your services are original with you and not copied in whole or in part from any other work; that your Work is not libelous or obscene, or knowingly violates the right of privacy or publicity, or any other rights of any person, firm or entity.

7. This Art License Agreement (the contract) is made effective DATE: [DATE]
If the above reflects your understanding, please sign below to reflect your agreement to the above terms and your intention to be bound hereby.

Sincerely,

[My Name]
[signature of hiring party]


AGREED AND ACCEPTED:

[Artist Name]

By:
[authorized signature]




I'm not stealing his art, but we did not agree to continue, he gave samples which I did not like, so we just stopped.

[princec]

It would appear that you should be able to mutually terminate this contract without avarice and in good faith. Technically you should return all materials supplied by the artist and destroy any copies you may still have. (You certainly won't be able to use them of course!)

Have you talked this over with the contractor before asking in here?

Cas :)

[Nemesis]

<disclaimer>not a lawyer</disclaimer>

You might be able to capitalise on the contractor not abiding on the first clause of the contract (the work not in a satisfactory form to you).

Of course, it is desirable to reach an amicable agreement as already suggested.

Failing that, if you can prove that the sample art provided by the contracter is not actually his / hers, you may have another point if you want to go one step further (legal proceedings) - the contractor may be liable to copyright infringement or fraud.

On a related note, when preparing such contracts, I think it is worthwhile specifying additional clauses in case of project cancellation, works not delivered in a timely fashion or the required quality (subjective area!), only partial works provided etc.

In closing, just my own opinions - consult a lawer by all means!

[Anthony Flack]

Yeah, and IANAL either etc, but your agreement to pay is subject to acceptance of the work. Which you didn't.

[arcadetown]

The terms "manner and form satisfactory to us" and "Upon acceptance of the Work" are clearly stated. Simply state that you are not satisfied with the work and do not use ANY of said work, not even one little sprite. Get some proof of acknoledgement from the artist such as a reply email acknowledging your intent to terminate. If you terminated after getting very little work then your probably ok but if you've asked for and received a good amount of work then your "acceptance" becomes extremely subjective so be careful.

[Sunshine]

Take 'em to Judge Judy! She'll get this plagerizing scrud straightened out :D

[svero]

I have to say that, depending on how much work I'd already done, if I was the artist I'd be pretty angry. If I'd spent a lot of time putting together artwork on a royalty deal only to have the developer pull out on me then how am I compensated for the time I already put in?

The developer can go on and finish the game and eventually make money, but I'm left with artwork that isn't really useful for anything and can't be sold on it's own.

It wouldn't matter so much if I'd just started but if I was half way through the art for the game... Well I guess it's a lesson for artists taking a royalty deal. Make sure you can't get left high and dry - put detailed cancelation procedures in the contract.

I mean you could spend weeks on something and have the developer pull out at the very end using your art as a demo to get another artist to have a crack at the game, leaving you with nothing.

[Indiepath]

I'm not stealing his art, but we did not agree to continue, he gave samples which I did not like, so we just stopped.

If you did not like those samples and stopped I guess it's okay if you mutually agree to terminate the contract? Talk with him. Make sure you there are no bad feelings in any side.

Next time, ask samples first - make contract after accepting those. ;)

[Ratboy]

On a related note, when preparing such contracts, I think it is worthwhile specifying additional clauses in case of project cancellation, works not delivered in a timely fashion or the required quality (subjective area!), only partial works provided etc.Absolutely. I wouldn't even consider signing a contract without these.

[David York]

Due to clause 3, you can terminate your work relationship without owing him any compensation.

Are you sure that dismissing your artist is the best course of action? Working with talent is a skill, and a difficult one. Consider sitting down with the artist and discussing what you do like about his work (both commissioned and otherwise), what you would like to see changed, and what it would take for him to be able to deliver work that you would be satisfied with.

In either case, frequently bad work comes from unaligned expectations, poor communication (on either side, no blame here), or unclear direction. At the very least, you may be able to learn what led him to create work you were unsatisfied with, so as to prevent similar situations in the future.

In either case, I strongly recommend thanking the artist for his/her time and remaining on good terms, even giving him a small amount of "thanks for all your time and efforts" cash (or just take him/her out to dinner) if you can afford it. Contacts and friends are more useful than burned bridges.

[Obscure]

I have to say that, depending on how much work I'd already done, if I was the artist I'd be pretty angry. If I'd spent a lot of time putting together artwork on a royalty deal only to have the developer pull out on me then how am I compensated for the time I already put in? In a word, your not - ok that is two words ;)
That is why people have to think carefully before proceeding with such deals. They should also break down work into stages and get approval at each stage.
i. Send samples - get them approved
ii Do first batch - get them approved
iii. Repeat ii until complete.

Also define what percentage of the total each batch is. That way if the developer decides that they wish to cancel you can easily calculate what percentage of the whole was done and thus what % or your original remuneration you are due.

[ehbgamer]

I know I should first make sure that this artist will deliver the art I'm looking for, I already got samples but unfortunately those samples were tricky (I do not blame the artist), they seems satisfying (a small image drawn using 2d tools which looks like 3D because it is a small sample).

I discussed with him how to make it better, and I pointed him to some sites and screen shots, but I did not get the quality I wanted, it seems that he is not capable of doing the quality I want.

Any way I contacted him 2 days ago and asked him to cancel the contract, I may give him $$ but If I got a reply!