Quebecor's TVA magazines demanding freelancers give up all rights
Quebecor-owned magazine publisher TVA Publications is pressing its writers to sign an aggressive new contract in order to work for its magazines.According to a posting on the Fagstein blog,
What’s so extreme about it, sadly, isn’t that it demands complete exclusive rights, including copyright, over all work submitted, or that it demands writers waive all moral rights, or that it demands retroactive rights to all past submitted work, or that half of these demands are so over-the-top that they probably wouldn’t stand up in court.[Thanks to Craig Silverman for tipping me to this.]
What’s horrible is that this is for magazine freelancers, who once upon a time were treated with more respect and professionalism than newspaper freelancers.
And what’s worse is that so many aspiring writers are so desperate for a byline and so naive about what it will mean for them that they’re willing to work for peanuts and will sign this agreement without giving it a second look.
Labels: freelancers
posted by D. B. Scott at
1:37 pm
2 Comments:
This move is just going to drive down the quality of their magazines. I hope that all freelancers working for them will refuse to sign or work under these conditions.
I wonder if Quebec up'ed their pay fees to include full rights to the material... I HIGHLY doubt it!
Way to hurt the already hurting economy Quebecor!!
As a regular freelancer for Quebecor I can tell you I will be saying "Go fly a kite! Unless you pony up the dough!". this might hurt me for a few months but there are many other publishers in the world which treat their freelancers with respect.
I going to go throw up now....
I'd rather donate my writing skills to causes I believe in (and generate income in other ways) than sign such a punitive contract. I have walked away from such contracts many times and will continue to do so.
I always try to negotiate terms with the publisher before walking away, but some publishers are simply not willing to negotiate -- an attitude which (as you stated) shows a complete lack of respect for writers.
Some publishers no longer see writers as creators; we've been downgraded to content producers: mere alphabet-shifters in the abc word factory.
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