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"Satisfactory manuscript" contract provisionAn author was negotiating a contract to produce Powerpoint supplements to a textbook. His account: "When I read the contract, I realized that it gave me no protection at all: Not only did they have to right to refuse to pay me based on a subjective judgment of what was satisfactory, they gave almost no guidance about what they wanted (so that I would have reasonable expectations of what would be satisfactory) and the contract also said that they could use whatever portion of my otherwise-unsatisfactory material they wanted. I told them there was no way I would sign a contract that, legally speaking, permitted them to keep all my work and pay me nothing. After I struck the provisions that gave them this right, their vice president signed it but specified that all deletions were refused -- providing no explanation for why they needed a contract that tilted all of the legal protections to their side. Finally, the editors stuck between the vice president and me had their legal department come up with a compromise contract that I was willing to sign and they would have been willing to recommend to the vice president. The revision mainly did two things:It assured me pro rata payment, rather than a summary judgment, so that I would get paid for anything they used.
It described "unsatisfactory" product as work that did not meet the specifications communicated to me before the production and/or revision stage. This was acceptable to me -- it did not protect me from wasted effort if they changed their minds about wanting to distribute the product, but it did protect me from being manipulated or ripped off during the development of a real product."
Posted July 5, 2002
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