Read before signing

Perhaps the title should be think before signing, but definitely read things before you sign them. And everyone goes 'well I read things and I'm a reasonably smart person' and that's great.

But people who write things also believe a lot of things that can be harmful to their long-term control over their own Intellectual Property, or IP. And those things can haunt you years, or decades, later.

I was looking at an article in Variety about Ed Brubaker, known for, among other things, creating the Winter Soldier, the modern-day Bucky identity (one can argue Bucky as a character already existed, but that's like saying that Nightwing was created by Bill Kane and company, instead of by Marv Wolfman and George Perez--it's more a conversation around dessert at a nice restaurant).

Oh. Here's the article: Winter Soldier Co-Creator Reveals 'Mixed Feelings' About Marvel Show - Variety

So, Ed, Mr. Brubaker, is aware that his creativity was under the auspices of work-for-hire, however he's a little salty (not at the cast, mind you, or at a particular person, more at the circumstances) about having gotten little more than a pat on the back and a mention in the credits once in a while.

I feel for him. I think he should be lauded and rewarded...but he won't be. Likely, Disney will hear these rumblings and toss him a little something-something, which everyone will go 'now it's all lovely and look at that' and I will go 'goodness, that's so sad considering what they're getting out of it'.

They have all those lovely subscribers, and everyone discussing the episodes and theories and whatnot (I mean seriously, Wandavision stole weeks of our lives in some cases. Weeks).

Disney has all that delicious merchandising money too. Shirts will be sold. Figures will be slapped into boxes that no one will take them out of again, over the sheer collectability of it all.

Down the line, more movie tickets will be sold, too, and possibly comic books. And the rich tapestry that is the MCU will keep chugging along, creating hundreds, if not thousands of jobs in producing the shows and movies, and let's not forget the theme parks.

And one of the seeds for all this was planted by Mr. Brubaker a while back, and he signed a contract (you can bet a pretty good one if he's not in court already) with Marvel that said all that creativity was for a paycheck, and then he got to go home and probably have a pretty good life and stuff, but without any say in his IP afterward.

Nothing in there said that Marvel would end up in Disney's fold, and that this would become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, with Mr. Brubaker getting to watch it all unfold from the sidelines. No clause that said 'once we hit the billion dollar mark, you get a something-something for that'. Shucks, as Captain America might say.

Is it fair? I mean, I bet it doesn't feel fair. But actually yeah, it's fair. If that's the contract you agreed to, and you signed it to prove you agreed with it.

So. When someone comes to you with a contract to sign away your IP, to do one little thing for them as work-for-hire, to even license your copyright to them (perhaps forever, in the case of a Big Publisher, or even a moderately imaginative Not-So-Big-Publisher), read it. Hire a lawyer (not an agent) to translate it into plain English if you have to.

Know what you're signing away, and what you're getting, before you find out what it feels like to be Mr. Brubaker. With a large company giving you a writing credit or a 'special thanks' on something you put your heart into, while they ride off into the sunset with a hell of a lot more than a pat on the back.