Freax
category: general [glöplog]
knos: they dont notify the artist everytime they charge someone for playing your material (hell, they dont even keep track of what gets played, how the fuck are they gonna automate informing the artists). and they calculate the returns percentage based on sales by the artist on the last couple yeats. so new and experimental artists see shit of a cent. thats not helping them protect their work, thats exploiting their name for profit. fuck copyright protection agencies -_-
That's because you only consider half of their roles.. They offer various services.
knos: I don't know about other countries but overhere in the Netherlands the collecting agencies are a financial mess. Nobody knows exactly how much money they give to artists and how much is spent on their own offices and managers (although many people believe most money goes to the latter).
For example: One of the agencies (Buma/Stemra) invests the money on the stock exchange instead of paying the artists directly. They invested 300 million euros and lost 47 million of those. They also refuse to tell how much money they pay to their managers. According to a dutch politician who researched the organisation, about 22% of the money they collect is overhead and not passed on to artists. The same politician also claims that another rights agency (Videma en Reprorecht) collected 19,4 million euros and only payed out 6,3 milion euros.
For example: One of the agencies (Buma/Stemra) invests the money on the stock exchange instead of paying the artists directly. They invested 300 million euros and lost 47 million of those. They also refuse to tell how much money they pay to their managers. According to a dutch politician who researched the organisation, about 22% of the money they collect is overhead and not passed on to artists. The same politician also claims that another rights agency (Videma en Reprorecht) collected 19,4 million euros and only payed out 6,3 milion euros.
i had similar reports on lack of transparency from portugal, spain, italy, germany and finland.. and im pretty sure its only the tip of the iceberg. its a nice business model, even supported by the multinationals
the thing is, most of those companies have "artists" as board members, since every member is a shareholder. Anyway I was *not* thinking about music rights collection companies.
the others dont difer much nicolas
tomcat: you seem to be even worse at handling just criticism than i am. how about replying properly for a change, people actually have good points.
seeing how the "author" (collector?) of the book is the only one going to kindergarten mode in this thread is actually quite sad
seeing how the "author" (collector?) of the book is the only one going to kindergarten mode in this thread is actually quite sad
hey tomcat. please email me. thanks. :)
And I've given my point already in this subject, many times. They are matching ps's opinion, but for the weaker minded, here we go again.
1. This is a NONPROFIT project. Got it? Nobody is making a penny of your works. Well, actually the print service does, but the other choice is never having this book.
2. Copyrights are respected. Nobody wrote another name under anyone's picture. Nobody changed your credits.
3. It is practically impossible to contact all the authors. Mindcandy editors can do it with 10-15 demos, I can't with ~3000 pictures. I could try, sure, but you'd never get the book. Face it, much worse things can happen in life than seeing your 15-20 years old drawing in a book that is assembled for the honor of the best artists, including you. Why the heck have you drawn that thing if you don't want to show it to the world?
4. Yeah, I know, everybody would've done this book much better. And everybody has a longer dick, I admit.
5. I have more important things to do than listening to another stupid whining-topic. If anyone is willing to sue us, mail me for our details. Others keep silent, thanks.
1. This is a NONPROFIT project. Got it? Nobody is making a penny of your works. Well, actually the print service does, but the other choice is never having this book.
2. Copyrights are respected. Nobody wrote another name under anyone's picture. Nobody changed your credits.
3. It is practically impossible to contact all the authors. Mindcandy editors can do it with 10-15 demos, I can't with ~3000 pictures. I could try, sure, but you'd never get the book. Face it, much worse things can happen in life than seeing your 15-20 years old drawing in a book that is assembled for the honor of the best artists, including you. Why the heck have you drawn that thing if you don't want to show it to the world?
4. Yeah, I know, everybody would've done this book much better. And everybody has a longer dick, I admit.
5. I have more important things to do than listening to another stupid whining-topic. If anyone is willing to sue us, mail me for our details. Others keep silent, thanks.
... and yet another thing, I am not antisocial, just not user friendly. :)
copyright isnt about crediting though.
Yea, it's not. And hey, forget about money, I don't think anyone here thinks that is the issue, since it's pretty certain that a project like this doesn't make any.
I'm mostly after quality and representation. I don't really believe it's that hard to contact authors and verify stuff since people have done it after Freax 1 came up and pointed alot of stuff that's wrong there. Again, how fast do you really have to get the book out anyway that you can't wait for your contacts?
And as I stated, the print quality leaves something to be desired with, which a proper profiling would've fixed. So that's a notch on representation. And not all of the stuff in the book really were 15-20 years old :D
I'm mostly after quality and representation. I don't really believe it's that hard to contact authors and verify stuff since people have done it after Freax 1 came up and pointed alot of stuff that's wrong there. Again, how fast do you really have to get the book out anyway that you can't wait for your contacts?
And as I stated, the print quality leaves something to be desired with, which a proper profiling would've fixed. So that's a notch on representation. And not all of the stuff in the book really were 15-20 years old :D
Reko: considering all the shit we gave Tomcat about the first book taking so fucking long... yeah, I'm pretty sure 'You took too little time with the second' isn't going to play well (:
...just checked my mail. tons of spam, but nothing from tomcat. still waiting. ;-)
i saw the book only once, but if i remember correctly, the ansis were - apart from a very questionable choice - not credited.
tomcat, it's a pity you didn't contact me - i could've consulted you a bit about the textmode chapter. especially some of the b/w block ascii you took in was sub-mediocre and rather a disgrace for the sake of scene textmode art than a proper presentation.
but then again, i saw the book only once and very quickly.
tomcat, it's a pity you didn't contact me - i could've consulted you a bit about the textmode chapter. especially some of the b/w block ascii you took in was sub-mediocre and rather a disgrace for the sake of scene textmode art than a proper presentation.
but then again, i saw the book only once and very quickly.
dipswitch: correct, the ansis are not credited
tomcat: about your points:
1. Nonprofit does not mean you don't need permission from the author
2. What Gargaj said: copyright & proper crediting are 2 different things
3. I beg to differ. You could easily have listed all the authors whose gfx you were going to publish on the freax website and let word-of-mouth among sceners do it's work. I understand that some people are very difficult to find after so many years but you could atleast have tried to contact the ones which are not so hard to reach.
4. No & don't want to know :-)
5. Ah, so you publish a book and don't give a fuck about what people have to say about it. Weird :-)
Don't get me wrong, I love the freax books and think you did a great job with that and I will still buy the last one when it comes out. But you really should be a bit more open towards valid criticism.
tomcat: about your points:
1. Nonprofit does not mean you don't need permission from the author
2. What Gargaj said: copyright & proper crediting are 2 different things
3. I beg to differ. You could easily have listed all the authors whose gfx you were going to publish on the freax website and let word-of-mouth among sceners do it's work. I understand that some people are very difficult to find after so many years but you could atleast have tried to contact the ones which are not so hard to reach.
4. No & don't want to know :-)
5. Ah, so you publish a book and don't give a fuck about what people have to say about it. Weird :-)
Don't get me wrong, I love the freax books and think you did a great job with that and I will still buy the last one when it comes out. But you really should be a bit more open towards valid criticism.
dipswitch:
Not only ANSIs, but also a lot of pixel gfx are also not credited, as we couldn't find out who made some. The ANSIs are from The Dark Domain DVD anyway. Actually I really didn't have the idea of contacting you, that's right, I could've done that.
sparcus:
1. I answered this one again (hint: 3000 pictures)
2. Proper crediting was applied everywhere, except in the cases I mentioned above for dipswitch
3. Word of mouth works so well that so far almost nobody showed up for their free copies. Not even today's active artists. A dozen Art Albums were given away so far, at least for my part, I don't know if they contacted CSW-Verlag.
4. So I won the dick contest? :)
5. Giving a fuck or not to critics is quite pointless, as I can't change a book that is already out. Please stick to comments like "hey tomcat, you rule", that keeps me relaxed, and everybody will be happy. :)
Not only ANSIs, but also a lot of pixel gfx are also not credited, as we couldn't find out who made some. The ANSIs are from The Dark Domain DVD anyway. Actually I really didn't have the idea of contacting you, that's right, I could've done that.
sparcus:
1. I answered this one again (hint: 3000 pictures)
2. Proper crediting was applied everywhere, except in the cases I mentioned above for dipswitch
3. Word of mouth works so well that so far almost nobody showed up for their free copies. Not even today's active artists. A dozen Art Albums were given away so far, at least for my part, I don't know if they contacted CSW-Verlag.
4. So I won the dick contest? :)
5. Giving a fuck or not to critics is quite pointless, as I can't change a book that is already out. Please stick to comments like "hey tomcat, you rule", that keeps me relaxed, and everybody will be happy. :)
1 of my pictures is in the book, so a couple of months ago i contacted csw verlag as instructed and requested my free copy of the book. nothing was heard for some months, so about 10 days ago i sent another email to csw verlag, who responded the day after and explained me the options to get my free copy. so all is well that ends well?
well yes... i'm happy this book was made, i'm happy with csw's reply, and i would've probably granted permission to use my picture even if i wouldn't have been entitled to a free copy of the book in return.
but it's rather cheap of tomcat to say that nobody claims their free copies if the request process is so obviously imperfect. not to mention the fact that i guess a lot of people don't even make the request since they have no means or no desire to pay online for shipment.
csw's reply was very mature- they apologized, and offered to hand out the book at the next demoparty, or send it inmediatly. that's professionalism if you ask me- "i don't know if my publisher does his job, now go pat me on the back" definitely is not.
well yes... i'm happy this book was made, i'm happy with csw's reply, and i would've probably granted permission to use my picture even if i wouldn't have been entitled to a free copy of the book in return.
but it's rather cheap of tomcat to say that nobody claims their free copies if the request process is so obviously imperfect. not to mention the fact that i guess a lot of people don't even make the request since they have no means or no desire to pay online for shipment.
csw's reply was very mature- they apologized, and offered to hand out the book at the next demoparty, or send it inmediatly. that's professionalism if you ask me- "i don't know if my publisher does his job, now go pat me on the back" definitely is not.
I said almost nobody claimed their copies AT ME, and I can't talk for CSW. It's rather cheap overlooking what I am writing.
tomcat: wasn't it you who directed us towards csw in the first place? ...
KILLING IS DEMO THE GAMESCENE!
Yep, I didn't even know it was available anywhere else except CSW. My first mail to them was replied with 'yea we'll send it'. 2 months later nothing and a new contact, which then gets me the book in about three weeks.
Hey tomcat, I know this is not the best place to ask this but... do you already have stock of the book? I want to buy one more. Where to buy it? I know, I know, google and that... but I'm lazy as hell. Link please?
Thanks :)
Thanks :)
I did get my free book from CSW Verlag after getting in touch with them and asking how the scheme was working. They only asked I pay the postage, which is fair enough I think. It took a few weeks to get here, but then I can understand sending a free book to some guy is not their top priority :)
Cool book by the way, it's nice to see all those scene graphics together. I for one find the colours aren't that bad, but I'm more concerned about the 320x200 pictures looking slightly distorted, as they were printed as if the pixel were perfectly square in that resolution.
Cool book by the way, it's nice to see all those scene graphics together. I for one find the colours aren't that bad, but I'm more concerned about the 320x200 pictures looking slightly distorted, as they were printed as if the pixel were perfectly square in that resolution.
texel : http://freax.hu/ ?