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Terms of Service Critique? by drawhound
Feeling a little nervous about releasing this baby out into the wild, but I really would like to get some feedback from people who either are used to taking commissions or to ordering them.
Would you mind giving me feedback on my ToS? Is there anything you see that rings alarm bells? Did I miss anything that you think I ought to include? I copied the general organization pattern from the most recent ToS topic over at artists_beware, but if you think there's a better way of organizing things, let me know!
(As a side note, feel free to ignore the little "ways to check up on me" bit in parenthesis under Communication. I'm still debating how I want to keep people updated on what I'm doing; once I figure it out, that'll go there. If you have experience/recommendations on that front, though, I'd love to hear them!)
I'm thinking once I get this hashed out, I'll make a google form for those interested in commissions to fill out. It seems like a streamlined, easy way to get what information I need out of people initially, and of course it only begins correspondence. It also automatically puts all information provided into a spreadsheet, which is so nice, lol. ORGANIZATION!
So yeah! Any feedback y'all have would be great! Thanks bunches. <3
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Comments
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Ahh excellent points here! Some things I've personally thought of but never really worded properly in my opinion. Especially the cap on requesting updates. I have a strict "e-mail only" policy when it comes to commissions so to reduce potential stress and to keep things organized.
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Thanks for this! I think I've covered everything here, except the bit about not allowing clients to keep you from posting your work for them to your own gallery. I haven't combed through too terribly many, granted, but I don't think I've seen any ToS's charging for redistribution rights (that I can recall). Is this a common thing? It definitely makes sense to me, I just wanna make sure it's not gonna scare off anyone who might otherwise be perfectly pleasant to work with. :x
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Most people give their customers permission to repost as a courtesy, but it's just that, a courtesy. If the customer doesn't want -you- to repost the art, as in keep the commission private (which more and more people are looking for) it's common to charge a fee to help cover any business you might miss out on by not posting it and effectively advertising that you do commissions and that they look nice.
With freelance contracts, which this type of work is, it's common that you keep all the rights that the customer hasn't asked and paid for.
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That's a good point! I'll definitely be thinking of how I can include this in my ToS. Thanks for your help and bringing that to my attention! :D
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I phrased it as such:
- Desired rights (redistribution, editing, commercial) have to be negotiated beforehand.
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I placed a bit about it under my personal publishing rights (I basically just said it was within my rights to post it, and that privacy would come at an extra fee). Just for future reference, do you know what sort of a percentage would be customary for that privacy fee? The only place I can think of to even start to look would be the Graphic Artists Guild Pricing Handbook, which I haven't yet bought. D:
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I have the handbook I'm not sure it covers that. In the fandom people charge anything from $5 extra to doubling the price of the commission. Personally I don't do "private" commissions at all, not for fandom rates anyway. I've heard from multiple friends who do private commissions and regret it if they charged too little, because they're usually happy with the way the commission turned out but can't share it and also not get new customers from showing it to people.
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Alrighty, good to know! I'll mull it over and come up with a definite amount/percentage if someone asks about purchasing it. Thank you so much for your help!
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NP, my TOS is here if you think it might have something you missed: https://www.weasyl.com/journal/11346/terms-of-service
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Your ToS seems completely reasonable. Good usage of bolding to highlight the most important parts, I found it to be a pretty easy read, I'm sure you won't encounter many problems with this.
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Yay, I'm glad! Thank you very much for taking the time to read through it c:
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I really enjoy how simple and straight-to-the point your TOS is. Mine is kindof a sprawling mess that covers everything but could stand to be shaved down for viewing pleasure lol. You seemed to have covered everything, even rights for yourself and your potential clients! Good work!
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Oh good, thank you! Haha I have a real penchant for being excessively wordy, so I'm glad that I was somehow able to par this down to something that's readable without being overwhelming. Thanks for looking over it for me! :D
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Really nice TOS, very professional. It looks like you got pretty much everything covered. The only thing I things that came to mind were "please do not harass me" is a bit vague and you might want to define what harassment entails if you want to avoid a certain type of behavior. For instance "Please do not send multiple messages without allowing at least 48 hours for a reply" depending on the desired effect.
Also this isn't common, but worth considering, you may want to address if a commissioner fails to keep up communication. For instance if you've received payment and are on the sketch stage, but the commissioner drops off the face of the earth or otherwise won't respond. Do you intend to keep work for a certain time before abandoning it? That's something very uncommon, esp after payment has been given, however it's worth consideration. Particularly if you're not in favor of holding on to commissions.
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Both very good points! I wasn't sure how to define harrassment, but displaying an unacceptable frequency like that seems like a good idea.
And I hadn't even considered that someone might drop communication, but I totally see it now and then on A_B, so thank you for bringing that up! I'll try to come up with some sort of timeline so that I'm not left hanging indefinitely. Thank you!
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This looks really good. Easy to read and understand. I liked the form example.
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Thanks! I just added that last night on a whim, so I'm glad you think it's beneficial! :D
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Link
Thaily
I suggest letting people stay in contact via e-mail, with a cap on updates they can request; you can always give more updates, but you don't want people e-mailing you twice a day asking for screenshots or whatever. And in my experience IM/Skype/etc. breeds familiarity you might not want and which might create bad feelings if you don't continue to chat with someone after the commission is done. In e-mail you can put everything into a special folder and keep organized.
You will definitely need to include a "I retain the right to decline any commission for any reason without citing said reason" to prevent drama.
And I wouldn't allow people to keep you from posting their commissions for free, you should charge a fee for redistribution rights, which they would effectively be revoking for you.
Personally I have a "I retain all rights not negotiated and paid for" in my TOS, you can clarify that it includes redistribution, commercial and editing rights.