Copywriting question?
Written by copydude on March 22nd, 2009
Ok. So I’ve been the main writer on a fairly popular gaming website. I’ve written about 80% of the material. There have been some major creative differences between my partner and I, and I basically want out to start my own website with writers that are more of the theme I’m trying to go for. The question is, what should I do with the 80% of written material on the website? Should I make a contract with my former partner saying that I get a certain amount of the money we made from advertisements in the future? How would I copyright everything I wrote on the website so that he wouldn’t be able to say he wrote it in case anything got nasty. I would probably allow him to keep up all the content I wrote (I really is the whole website), but it would obviously be at a cost. Let me know what steps I would need to take to leave the website in terms of copyrighting my material and making a contract on money made from future compensation the site may make. Thank you.
We do have a partnership agreement: In terms of someone leaving the site, we have a clause that states
“13) If one partner no longer wants to be part of the site, then the other partner has the opportunity to buy out the ownership percentage of the leaving partner. The leaving partner can make an offer to sell his percentage also. The buying and selling of these ownership percentages are negotiable between the partners of the site if one of the partners communicates their want to no longer be part of the site.”
So it’s sort of ambiguous. It was planned that if this were to happen, it would be something we “negotiate”. So yeah, it probably wasn’t smart. I think I will be able to negotiate with him on a contract for future profits (not like we make that much now), but I just want to make sure all my writing is copyrighted, in case he tries to say he owned all that writing I did (which was 80% of the site)
that’s why- Yeah, for the most part it has been an “amicable agreement” (we are good friends, and I’m going to approach this as a friend), where profits for the site are split 55% to 45% (this was in the partnership agreement). I know since I would be leaving the site, I would lose my percentage unless I gave him approval to keep up all the articles I wrote for the site (which is anywhere from 75-80% of the writing). There would really be no site if none of my articles were up. That’s why I first want to copyright all my work. And then after that, would it make sense to ask for something like 10-20% of all future profits for him having my compliance to keep up my written material that is under copyrighted under my name?
2 Comments at "Copywriting question?"
You should have had a proper partnership agreement from the start which divided up duties, arranged for a future parting of the ways, buyouts, royalties on creative work, etc. Too late for a proper written agreement like that now.
Instead you are going to have negotiate rights, royalties, company valuation, etc, now when you two want to be quit of each other. Not a healthy negotiating environment! But you have to come up with a written agreement you will both abide by. See your lawyer and work it out.
I agree with Ibu guru. It’s hard for me to fathom how you could not have a prior agreement in place. Presumably, the material and content is owned by the business (you did form a business, yes?), of which you are a co-owner. The Operating Agreement (or whatever agreement is in place) should spell out ownership and royalty rights. If it doesn’t or if you never bothered to formulate one, you have to come to an amicable agreement with your (ex) partner. He too will benefit from working this thing out amicably, since you could force a liquidation of the company and he could be SOL. It’s hard to detail the steps you should take, since we can’t guage what protections and guarantees are already in place. Assuming there are none, you are going to have to think about what you’re willing to give up and at what cost. A standard negotiating tactic is to ask for more than you are willing to accept so you eventually get what you wanted in the first place. While that may seem like common sense, I figured I’d throw it in there. Good luck.
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