Negotiation tools: the Telephone and Fax Machine

Copyrights, Contracts, & Guidelines for Dinosaur Artists & Paleontologists

Part 2 Contracts

Negotiation tools:
the Telephone
and Fax Machine Most negotiation is done on the telephone. Therefore, the artist would be well-advised to remember a few telephone negotiation points. When the offer is first made, the artist should not feel compelled to answer immediately. Certainly, expressing interest, or complimenting the nature of the proposed project is fine, but the artist should always negotiate when he/she is ready. The call may have come to you in the middle of doing something requiring intense concentration and so you might be distracted, or caught off guard. If this is the case, excuse yourself politely and arrange a return call within the next 24 hours. Any project which demands an instant answer is either suspect, or Hollywood.After the offer has gone into negotiation, the artist should keep the job file, (yes, you should keep job files!) by the telephone along with notes and questions he/she has made about the project and the terms. This will enable you to cover everything you need to speak about with your potential client when they finally get out of the endless meetings most of them spend their days in, and return your call. At a time when you’re not ready. So aren’t you glad you have that file handy?
The other important negotiation tool is a fax machine. Any artist who does not have a fax machine should go out and buy one. (You can buy them used, pretty cheaply, and get one that has a copy function in it.) The reason for this is that a number of potential clients, especially TV, need to have rights licensed to them within days, and they usually offer some of the least acceptable contracts to begin with. The ability to fax changes back and forth is a terrific convenience to you and your potential client, and faxed agreements generally carry the weight of law. A faxed signature normally will hold up in court, although you and your client will want to exchange plain-paper copies of the agreement once the faxed one has gone through, simply because fax paper disintegrates faster than regular paper. The fax machine is also an important negotiation asset when dealing with clients in other countries and inconvenient time zones.

This brings me to my first contract. When a media art buyer or a client from another country or company you have never heard of calls and says they’re interested in maybe using your work in their project, could you send some slides? Do you just send slides? No, you do not. First you fax them the sign-off agreement (see the next page).

You’ve said to them, “OK. That sounds great. Give me your Fedex number and address and I’ll get some slides out to you today, but first I need you to sign off on a copyright acknowledgement. I’ll fax it to you, what’s your fax number?” Then you fill in the company’s name on the first blank, the company location on the second blank, your own name on the third blank, and the name of the project/product on the fourth blank, and fax it off. No one has ever objected to this sign-off and it protects both parties in a number of ways:

The artist has an assurance that his work will not just be used without payment, credit, or contract with the defense of “Gee, we thought it was ok.” And the artist has also established that the person to whom he has been speaking is probably a qualified art buyer for this company with the authority to enter into contract negotiations.

The company now has some paper identification of copyright ownership to go along with the artwork, establishing a procedure for use, should they select your examples.

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		Part 2 Contracts

Negotiation tools: the Telephone and Fax Machine		Most negotiation is done on the telephone. Therefore, the artist would be well-advised to remember a few telephone negotiation points. When the offer is first made, the artist should not feel compelled to answer immediately. Certainly, expressing interest, or complimenting the nature of the proposed project is fine, but the artist should always negotiate when he/she is ready. The call may have come to you in the middle of doing something requiring intense concentration and so you might be distracted, or caught off guard. If this is the case, excuse yourself politely and arrange a return call within the next 24 hours. Any project which demands an instant answer is either suspect, or Hollywood.After the offer has gone into negotiation, the artist should keep the job file, (yes, you should keep job files!) by the telephone along with notes and questions he/she has made about the project and the terms. This will enable you to cover everything you need to speak about with your potential client when they finally get out of the endless meetings most of them spend their days in, and return your call. At a time when you’re not ready. So aren’t you glad you have that file handy? The other important negotiation tool is a fax machine. Any artist who does not have a fax machine should go out and buy one. (You can buy them used, pretty cheaply, and get one that has a copy function in it.) The reason for this is that a number of potential clients, especially TV, need to have rights licensed to them within days, and they usually offer some of the least acceptable contracts to begin with. The ability to fax changes back and forth is a terrific convenience to you and your potential client, and faxed agreements generally carry the weight of law. A faxed signature normally will hold up in court, although you and your client will want to exchange plain-paper copies of the agreement once the faxed one has gone through, simply because fax paper disintegrates faster than regular paper. The fax machine is also an important negotiation asset when dealing with clients in other countries and inconvenient time zones. This brings me to my first contract. When a media art buyer or a client from another country or company you have never heard of calls and says they’re interested in maybe using your work in their project, could you send some slides? Do you just send slides? No, you do not. First you fax them the sign-off agreement (see the next page). You’ve said to them, “OK. That sounds great. Give me your Fedex number and address and I’ll get some slides out to you today, but first I need you to sign off on a copyright acknowledgement. I’ll fax it to you, what’s your fax number?” Then you fill in the company’s name on the first blank, the company location on the second blank, your own name on the third blank, and the name of the project/product on the fourth blank, and fax it off. No one has ever objected to this sign-off and it protects both parties in a number of ways: The artist has an assurance that his work will not just be used without payment, credit, or contract with the defense of “Gee, we thought it was ok.” And the artist has also established that the person to whom he has been speaking is probably a qualified art buyer for this company with the authority to enter into contract negotiations. The company now has some paper identification of copyright ownership to go along with the artwork, establishing a procedure for use, should they select your examples.

		<< Previous \| Top of Page \| Contents \| W&K Publications \| Next >>