[HN Gopher] Cory Doctorow on unfair contracts for writers
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Cory Doctorow on unfair contracts for writers
Author : worik
Score : 21 points
Date : 2022-06-27 19:22 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pluralistic.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (pluralistic.net)
| gralx wrote:
| Does anyone know the meaning of "all finally settled claims" in
| point III?
|
| > III. Blanket indemnities. I'm not wealthy, and my insurer won't
| cover claims that you settle without their consent. Asking me to
| indemnify you against "all claims" exposes me to the risk of
| bankruptcy - and still doesn't protect you. I change this to "all
| finally settled claims."
|
| A claim not finally settled leaves nothing to indemnify against.
| I'm missing something here.
|
| Edit: Maybe "I indemnify Publisher against all claims which at
| the time of contract signing are finally settled"?
| dalke wrote:
| "finally settled" appears to be a legal phrase. I'll quote from
| https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/finally-settled :
|
| > _finally settled_ means that all parties to the litigation
| shall have entered into a settlement agreement, that all
| relevant courts shall have approved the settlement, and that
| the terms of the settlement shall no longer be subject to
| appeal, or that such litigation shall have been dismissed with
| prejudice by a court of competent jurisdiction and such
| dismissal shall not be subject to appeal.
| gralx wrote:
| Right! Didn't think to look it up as a term of art.
|
| That means the missing information is temporal: the
| subsitution in point III narrows indemnity to only those
| claims which satisfy _finally settled_ at the moment the
| contract binds.
| dalke wrote:
| > I had to indemnify the publisher against all claims related to
| my work, including any that the publisher decided, unilaterally,
| to settle.
|
| I got something like this last month, as a (very small) software
| vendor!
|
| The lawyers from a potential customer modified my standard
| contract. A DDG search finds an almost identical copy of the text
| at https://controlriskonline.net/Account/Register so I'll quote
| from it to preserve any implied confidentiality:
|
| ] Licensor will defend or settle any action brought against
| Customer to the extent that it is based upon a claim that the
| Software, as provided by Licensor to Customer under this
| Agreement and used within the scope of this Agreement, infringes
| any U.S. patent or any copyright or misappropriates any trade
| secret, and will pay any costs, damages and reasonable attorneys'
| fees attributable to such claim that are awarded in final
| judgment or are payable in settlement, provided that Customer:
| (a) promptly notifies Licensor in writing of the claim; (b)
| grants Licensor sole control of the defense and settlement of the
| claim; and (c) provides Licensor, at Licensor's expense, with all
| assistance, information and authority reasonably required for the
| defense and settlement of the claim.
|
| Yeah, that got big no from me.
|
| (What I actually said was that I could acquire liability
| insurance that could cover this, and pass this on as a cost-plus
| increase to my quoted price.)
|
| They also wanted me to move jurisdiction from Sweden to the US,
| which ain't going to happen.
|
| I also said that my quoted price didn't include the time and
| mental effort to negotiate legal terms with every potential
| customer, so if they wanted to discuss further changes I would
| need to raise my price.
|
| > But I burned that editor, put her in a terrible position with
| her new bosses.
|
| Yeah, I'm worried about that too. My primary contact is decently
| senior, but he's already done some back-and-forth for me, and I
| don't want to burn him further.
| riidom wrote:
| This is a nice blog dedicated to the topic:
| https://writerbeware.blog
| worik wrote:
| I worry about these sorts of conditions being applied to computer
| programmers
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(page generated 2022-06-27 23:02 UTC)