Reproduction rights?

[Spidey-man]

Okay a man recently contacted me about an old piece he had seen that he would like to buy the reproduction rights to. I have no clue what that means, at all. Anything you know about it i would appreciate. anything...

Thanks in advance.

[emily g]

First of all, get the book "Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines." It has all the information you need to know.

When you create a piece of artwork, you own all the rights to it. You can make copies, prints, etc. whatever you want.
This person wants to buy some of these rights from you. You need to find out exactly what rights he wants to buy.
Let's say he wants to print it in a magazine--I'll do an example of what you might put in a contract or letter of agreement:

RIGHTS TRANSFERRED
Category of Use: editorial
Medium of Use: magazine
Geographic Area: North America
Time Period: 6 months

So, this means he is buying the right to print your piece as an editorial illustration in a magazine in North America for the period of 6 months.
It is important to spell all these rights out. If you don't, you might find out that he's using your art to make posters or some other such thing (without paying you for the right to do so).

Every job is different, but the GAG Pricing and Ethical Guidelines book can give you some ballpark figures for what to charge.

Hope this make sense :rendered:
emily

[Slash]

Thats good to know Emily.

On a fun sidenote: I thought this thread was about sex... reproducing and stuff.. :bounce:

[emily g]

hahaha. . . I can just imagine you Slash: "Hmmm, this looks like an interesting thread. . . oh, wait, they're talking about reproducing ARTWORK." :dur:

emily

[N D Hill]

Those are some pretty good tips. I really wish more schools offered courses in this type of stuff. Copyright laws, contract agreements, commision fees, etc. I know the art program I'm enrolled in could really benefit from one.

[Spidey-man]

Thanks for the information it helped alot and im gonna look into that book.

Thanks again.