Amazon Studios -- read the contract!

[starcentral]

I got excited about the prospect of submitting a script to Amazon Studios for their consideration.

Then I read the contract -- which can only be found, as far as I can tell, on the very last step of the submission process. Two things jumped out at me:

"5.2.2. Our Rights to Distribute Your Public Submission. You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-terminable, sub-licensable, transferable right to copy, transfer, stream, make available for download, add captions and make other distribution-related modifications to your Public Submission as we desire to facilitate such distribution."

"9. Compensation. You will have no right to compensation in connection with the exploitation of rights you grant under this Agreement."

Hmmm.........maybe not.

You should still be excited about the opportunity, this is actually pretty standard stuff when a company, individual, or other legal entity is looking to solicit material from writers and may need to show it to other partners or third parties. I think extracting these two points from their terms and agreement is somewhat misleading and thus being misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Basically when you submit your script to Amazon you are granting them the rights to act as an agent for your script without having to pay them anything and without them having to pay you anything. If they are interested in it, perhaps after shopping it around or working within their network or resources, they will very clearly option or purchase it from you which is made pretty clear in their terms on their website.

More likely they will option the screenplay so they actually have an opportunity to further develop the screenplay with rewrites as changes are required for a myriad of reasons that no writer should spend too much time trying to understand (unless you want to pull your hair out).

This agreement is pretty much no different than NDA's (non disclosure agreement) I've used when I've already secured rights to material and need to show it to potential producing partners and they need to show their employees or other partners of theirs, etc.. When I issue NDA agreements I typically specify an expiry period as well so that it's not indefinite.

When in doubt always ask a decent producer, producer consultant, or better yet contact a lawyer.

 

[David W. Richardson]

You should still be excited about the opportunity, this is actually pretty standard stuff when a company, individual, or other legal entity is looking to solicit material from writers and may need to show it to other partners or third parties. I think extracting these two points from their terms and agreement is somewhat misleading and thus being misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Basically when you submit your script to Amazon you are granting them the rights to act as an agent for your script without having to pay them anything and without them having to pay you anything. If they are interested in it, perhaps after shopping it around or working within their network or resources, they will very clearly option or purchase it from you which is made pretty clear in their terms on their website.

More likely they will option the screenplay so they actually have an opportunity to further develop the screenplay with rewrites as changes are required for a myriad of reasons that no writer should spend too much time trying to understand (unless you want to pull your hair out).

This agreement is pretty much no different than NDA's (non disclosure agreement) I've used when I've already secured rights to material and need to show it to potential producing partners and they need to show their employees or other partners of theirs, etc.. When I issue NDA agreements I typically specify an expiry period as well so that it's not indefinite.

When in doubt always ask a decent producer, producer consultant, or better yet contact a lawyer.

As has been stated repeatedly here, however, the problem is that this is buried on the VERY LAST STEP of the whole submission process. It should be made available for the writer to read and understand fully before deciding whether or not he wants to START the submission process at all. Not doing so at the very least gives the impression of being deceptive.

 

[starcentral]

Perhaps Amazon has changed it since you had first gone through the process, when I visited their link the other day all the information was neatly organized on the left hand size and guidelines and agreements viewable.

https://studios.amazon.com/help/submission-guidelines

 

[David W. Richardson]

Perhaps Amazon has changed it since you had first gone through the process, when I visited their link the other day all the information was neatly organized on the left hand size and guidelines and agreements viewable.

https://studios.amazon.com/help/submission-guidelines

Good deal. That certainly wasn't there when I went through the process. Thanks!

 

[GHKAM]

"5.2.2. Our Rights to Distribute Your Public Submission. You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-terminable, sub-licensable, transferable right to copy, transfer, stream, make available for download, add captions and make other distribution-related modifications to your Public Submission as we desire to facilitate such distribution."

This is standard for websites to deal with original content. How else can they show it without such permissions?

YouTube TOS:

8. Rights you licence

8.1 When you upload or post Content to YouTube, you grant:

• to YouTube, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence (with right to sub-licence) to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform that Content in connection with the provision of the Service and otherwise in connection with the provision of the Service and YouTube's business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels;
  
• to each user of the Service, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such Content to the extent permitted by the functionality of the Service and under these Terms.

https://www.youtube.com/static?gl=GB&template=terms


Twitter:

Your Rights

You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).
This license is you authorizing us to make your Tweets available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same. But what’s yours is yours – you own your content.

https://twitter.com/tos/previous/version_2?lang=en


Soundcloud:

To the extent it is necessary in order for SoundCloud to provide you with any of the aforementioned hosting services, to undertake any of the tasks set forth in these Terms of Use and/or to enable your use of the Platform, you hereby grant such licences to SoundCloud on a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and fully paid basis.

https://soundcloud.com/terms-of-use


Vimeo:

LICENSE TO VIMEO: As between you and Vimeo, you own the video content ("videos") that you submit to the Vimeo Service. By submitting a video, you grant Vimeo and its affiliates a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license and right to copy, transmit, distribute, publicly perform and display (through all media now known or hereafter created), and make derivative works from your video for the purpose of (i) displaying the video within the Vimeo Service; (ii) displaying the video on third party websites and applications through a video embed or Vimeo's API subject to your video privacy choices; (iii) allowing other users to play, download, and embed on third party websites the video, subject to your video privacy choices; (iii) promoting the Vimeo Service, provided that you have made the video publicly available; and (iv) archiving or preserving the video for disputes, legal proceedings, or investigations.

https://vimeo.com/terms

Facebook, Fark.com, etc. etc.

 

[Jimmy Pierce]

You have to admit, they're at least honest. Better than a producer making empty promises.

 

[Tim Sewell]

Having now read the 'offending' clauses, they're actually nothing to worry about. They're not saying that they won't pay you if they make a hit series from your work. What's meant is that if you submit your work and make it public (within their system this means you assign rights to Amazon to make your work visible to and allow other members to view, read, annotate etc) then they won't be paying you for that right. If you set your project as private then only Amazon Studios staff and sub-contractors would see your work and you grant Amazon Studios the right to show it to those people.