Tag: payment

Part I: Exploitative Contracts: Understanding the Symptoms of the disease

  1. More often than not, as a freelance writer, you are instantly turned-off when you encounter legal jargons that forms the scheme of your contract. Trust me when I say this—lawyers are too.In my noob experience, let me tell you this, the writers I have dealt with usually never end up reading their contract. Especially, If you are an Indian writer trying to make it big, numerous times I have seen how you people usually almost never read your own contract. As a writer I assume you will attempt to give it a read, at the least. I get it, the big bad legal world scares you, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to read it. To begin with, I’ll help you figure out the symptoms of an exploitative contract. And through my subsequent entries I’ll tell you what law states so that you can explore options. For starters, you may want to with hold your signature on the contract if it shows the following symptoms:

  2. It looks like a template : Note this: Lawyers, Secretaries and other professionals in the Legal Industry are usually busy. In other words, you are another little brick in the wall of their world; they do not have the time and day to create a special contract just for you. They end up giving you a template of a contract with a few changes made to it. Your Job is this:read the contract very carefully.One of a lawyer’s oldest trick in the book is to complicate simple sentences, especially if they know that you cannot afford a lawyer or don’t care to seek a lawyer’s opinion. Don’t let the colonial words persuade you into giving up understanding it. Thus, if it looks like a general template, be ultra-careful.
  3. Overdosing on Legal Jargons:  Overdosing on anything is not okay, especially on words. If you cannot understand anything even after spending minimal time on it, high chances are it’s them and not you. As cliched as it sounds, read it again. Convoluting sentences for reasons that ceases to find roots in common sense is a common practice among lawyers. My advice: try googling the meaning and making a comment adjacent to the word, so that when you read it as a whole—you’ll be able to substitute the meanings.
    • Get Paid!: Remember this: every major publisher/ production house usually looks to save up on money, so more than anything make sure you are able to understand the terms of your payment. I had to deal with numerous cases where writers have submitted scripts to these large production houses and at the end of it— they did not receive a penny. Why you ask? Those ninnys signed the contract even when it said “ You accept that payment will be rendered upon the employer’s satisfaction of your work”. Translation: You get paid only if your employer is happy with your work. Ding- Dong! YOUR EMPLOYER WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH YOUR WORK! Any 10 year old can recognize this. Moral of the story— at least understand the terms and conditions of the payment you are about to receive.
    • Do not agree to cover for your employer’s losses: In other words, if you come across the clause “Indemnity”  which  reads as something on the lines that if your employer undergoes any losses, you’ll agree to compensate for the  losses. Why should you be responsible for your employer’s loses? Exactly! you shouldn’t, you never should! What does this ‘indemnity’ even mean? Indemnity is like your insurance. For example, take life insurance, in case your life is insured, then on your death— your near and dear ones( depending on the terms of the contract) will receive a monetary sum that is estimated to be the value of your life( Only according to the world of money)
  4. What are you entitled to as a Writer? How do you know what you are entitled to by the fact that you are writer? To understand this, you’ll have to understand your “Rights”. This is important so that you can prevent a large corporation from profiting off what you do not know—that is your rights. If your fellow writer friend tells you, it doesn’t matter as long as you are paid. Those pearls of wisdom are in direct contradiction to common sense; do not listen to them. If you do not know your rights, find out. If you cannot understand it, I think I may be able simplify information to the extent that it might help you and will put out another post on the it. In the meantime, set your inner wild child  free and exploit the internet!