Such a boring offer.
Check out the offer Lous Rossmann received from a TV company. THAT one was hillarious
I watched that yesterday and that was hilarious!
It was a bit funny at first, but his rant, although understandable, isn't correct relative to business norms. He's addressing it as if the contract was written for or to him and for a project where he's the artist. It's not. Rather, it's a boilerplate contract that is sent to every artist to cover a variety of situations. It's not personal and he was taking it personally.
He's correct in that the company that initiates the contract has it tailored to their own benefit. (Sometimes a company will have a mutually beneficial contract.) As a result, the recipient of the contract is obligated to read it and has the option to rebut it. That's contract negotiation. If he wanted to pursue the opportunity, rather than compose a long reply to the organization about what he didn't like, he could have marked up the contract to his (or his lawyer's) satisfaction and sent it back. Thus begins the back-and-forth.
He's correct in that the company that initiates the contract has it tailored to their own benefit. (Sometimes a company will have a mutually beneficial contract.) As a result, the recipient of the contract is obligated to read it and has the option to rebut it. That's contract negotiation.
The side that authors the contract sets the tone and controls the negotiation process. It's like fixing a bad design, there is a limit how much you can change.
It was a bit funny at first, but his rant, although understandable, isn't correct relative to business norms. He's addressing it as if the contract was written for or to him and for a project where he's the artist. It's not. Rather, it's a boilerplate contract that is sent to every artist to cover a variety of situations. It's not personal and he was taking it personally.
Of course it's personal, it was his contract after all (and it was somewhat personalised for him) and they wanted him to sign it.
If they didn't want him to take it personally they shouldn't have written such a horrifically bad contract to begin with.
QuoteHe's correct in that the company that initiates the contract has it tailored to their own benefit. (Sometimes a company will have a mutually beneficial contract.) As a result, the recipient of the contract is obligated to read it and has the option to rebut it. That's contract negotiation. If he wanted to pursue the opportunity, rather than compose a long reply to the organization about what he didn't like, he could have marked up the contract to his (or his lawyer's) satisfaction and sent it back. Thus begins the back-and-forth.
That contract was not salvageable, almost everything in it was bad.
The side that authors the contract sets the tone and controls the negotiation process. It's like fixing a bad design, there is a limit how much you can change.Most contract proposals of businesses that want to make a deal and that have competition are balanced.
Agreed, and crossing out almost everything or simply saying that the contract is unacceptable is sufficient, rather than long explanations about each point. If a company really is interested in doing a deal, then after failing to get you to go for the ridiculous version of the contract, they'll pull out the mutually beneficial version or have one drafted.
I don't mind some of Peter Oakes videos and tutorials but haven't watched any in a while, not sure what the hell happened here though, the entire video page is now just one big advertisement flyer.
Now, what I'd like to hear about -- and I don't see it being discussed -- is such an offer [as Rossmann's] even legal?!
Anything is legal to sign.
And they are free to sue you if you break any agreement you sign.
Doesn't mean they will win though.
Legality of anything can only be ruled after the fact by court.
(I mean the latter sense, of course; but it is kind of disappointing that such things have to be subjected to the expensive scrutiny of the court before they are found as such.)
2000 bucks for a 3-4 day work? Ok, so that is about 60-80 USD/hour, before taxes, below the engineering contracting rate. Not a good deal, if you dont have the time.
Anything is legal to sign.
And they are free to sue you if you break any agreement you sign.
Doesn't mean they will win though.
Legality of anything can only be ruled after the fact by court.
True enough!
(I mean the latter sense, of course; but it is kind of disappointing that such things have to be subjected to the expensive scrutiny of the court before they are found as such.)
Tim
Authenticity is in my opinion one of the main reasons for Dave's success.
It is kind of ironic that companies think, that's something they can buy into.
Keep up the good work and your principles, Dave!