TIGSource Forums

Hi guys,

So, I've gotten offered a freelance job at a big Canada-based developer (not naming anything for now). Everything seemed fine, and I was just waiting for the contract to be mailed, when I suddenly got an e-mail saying that they cannot contract me because of the difference between copyright laws here in the Netherlands and over in Canada.

What it came down to was that they could never fully own the artwork I would do for them and would have to ask for my permission to use or alter the artwork every time.

My solution (which, as far as I know, is common practice) was that it should clearly say in the contract that they would retain the rights to all the artwork. This was fine with me, and should give them all the approval they will ever need.

However, this was apparently not legal and so they just could not offer me the contract.

This is where you come in, Tiggers: does anyone know more about this matter? Have any of the European members here done freelance work for the US or Canada? If so, how did you solve this issue?

Please help. I don't want to lose this opportunity.

 :beg:

I'm not sure how applicable it is. But when selling photographs here in Sweden, you are free to sell full usage rights. But I think that you, as the creator, still remain as the "creator" of the work.

So I wonder; are you sure they have gotten it right? I think you should be able to sell the right to use it freely without asking you for permission every time. But perhaps they want to be the full owners of the work? (Which is total overkill and you should be protected from that as the artist).

Then again, I know pretty much nothing about these things. So feel free to ignore me. :)

Your big Canadian-based developer should analyze our big Canadian contract law.  It might tell them how to do their job right.

I'm actually surprised they did what they did; they should be smarter.  :droop:

I have this vague feeling that what they've stumbled over is the issue of moral rights, which are slightly different in different countries.

As specified in the Berne Convention, moral rights are special rights which are held by the actual creators of a copyrighted work.  These rights include the right to declare yourself the creator of the work (or alternately to remain anonymous), and the right to protect the integrity of that work.  The original author maintains these rights even if he assigns the copyrights away to some other entity, and he keeps these rights until he dies, at which point the moral rights vanish -- they normally cannot be passed on to another person or corporate entity, even if the thing being created was a work for hire for that other person or entity.

In Canada, though, moral rights can be assigned away to corporations, and this is often done in employment contracts for people who are performing work for hire (such as, for example, video game developers).  (For what it's worth, the USA is even worse than Canada, in terms of its treatment of moral rights -- the USA got a waiver for most "moral rights" requirements when they signed the convention)

Now, I'm not aware of the precise situation in the Netherlands, but if the laws there don't allow assigning of moral rights, then while you're living under the laws of the Netherlands, your employment contract can't legally have you assign your moral rights to your employer, which means that your employer would have to take the risk that someday you might say "Wait, I don't approve of you using that image I drew in that way.  You can't do that."  And legally, they would have to stop, because you'd have the right to protect the integrity of the work.  The only real solution I can see would be to move to Canada (or the USA), or some other less author-friendly country where they'd allow you to assign away your moral rights to your employer.

Regardless, my advice is to check with a lawyer in your area, who knows the local laws.  They should be able to advise you.  :)

Thanks for the replies, guys. I've been talking to some other people as well, and this is all very helpful. The chance of this still happening is pretty slim, but I'm trying regardless :)

Thanks! ;D

Yes, do check more into the matter - hopefully this isn't the first time you have the chance to freelance for an overseas company, so you'll want to have this sorted out anyways as a freelancer.

And also good luck, man, I hope for the best! And do tell us how it all turns out <3

Well, in the end the deal didn't go through. Issues couldn't be sorted out and they couldn't hire me as a regular employee. Oh well, it was a good experience :)

Thanks for the help, everyone!