Choose your battles wisely

In the discussion so far, we have been privileged to witness the existence of IPR and Work for Hire contract in several domains which included Physics, Cinema, IT and ITES and of course Cricket. But perhaps the music business (or entertainment if classified broadly) is the place for examining the intricacies of contracts and IPR. In the music business, it is assumed that all your creative work on a project becomes the property of the company/studio for which you're working. Occasionally, a production "on the cheap" tries to lure musicians into working non-union/off contract, and when they do that, the company usually makes the musicians sign a release that indemnifies the company against future claims of royalties.

Another example would be a composer writing a jingle for a client. In a case like this, the client usually controls all publishing rights while the composer keeps his authorship rights. Broadcast royalties are then split 50/50 between the two entities.

In case of the Indian players (our heroes), who make more money through endorsements than through match fees, they signed the contracts with the qualifications. The players as well as the BCCI agreed upon an arrangement of an altered contract which would state that 1) they would not indulge in conflicting sponsorship only during the 47-day period of the World Cup, and not before or after the event, and 2) they would allow imaging rights for two months only to those ICC sponsors who are not in conflict with their personal sponsors. The rest of the 22 clauses of the player terms had already been agreed upon. Although there was a fear that ICC would not accept the altered contract, the Indian players, backed by the board went on with it. Surprisingly, they soon found support from almost all cricket playing nations.

So, on one hand we have extremities wherein its “sign it or starve” for example in the case of Apple wherein they own everything outright- including rights to promotional materials. You can’t breathe a word if, say, you designed that interesting new iTunes logo. Therefore, whether you sign one such ‘work for hire’ contract depends on how much (extra) they pay or how much fun it is. But on the other hand, as in the case of the players, the contract is negotiable. So, either you get the negotiating taken care of up front... or, if you’re feeling dangerous, do the work first and refuse to sign anything afterwards. It all depends on how you choose to fight the battle..