Tuesday, February 5th 2019
The Witcher Author Andrzej Sapkowski Reportedly Settles With CD Projekt Red For Less Than He Bargained For
Remember when we brought you news that The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski was looking for payment in the order of 6% of total The Witcher profits from CD Projekt Red? At the time, CD Projekt Red made it clear that they thought their contractual obligations had been fulfilled - which meant that Sapkowski's decision to accept a lump-sum payment instead of a percentage on the profits was his own.
Well, news is circulating that the parties have reached a silent, under the table agreement, much like Sapkowski initially wanted. It remains unclear whether CD Projekt Red's lawyers actually saw some merit on the author's claims, or if the studio just wanted to avoid any sort of bad press that could be associated with these developments. Choosing to focus on the studio's well-being and not being driven into a conflict with the author of the universe they were built upon certainly wouldn't boost morale in the studio. With the money the studio has garnered from all its investments, it's likely a "pay and forget" stance was enacted, though for less than the initial $16 million Sapkowski was looking for.
Sources:
via PC Games N, via Gamestar.de, Puls Biznesu
Well, news is circulating that the parties have reached a silent, under the table agreement, much like Sapkowski initially wanted. It remains unclear whether CD Projekt Red's lawyers actually saw some merit on the author's claims, or if the studio just wanted to avoid any sort of bad press that could be associated with these developments. Choosing to focus on the studio's well-being and not being driven into a conflict with the author of the universe they were built upon certainly wouldn't boost morale in the studio. With the money the studio has garnered from all its investments, it's likely a "pay and forget" stance was enacted, though for less than the initial $16 million Sapkowski was looking for.
24 Comments on The Witcher Author Andrzej Sapkowski Reportedly Settles With CD Projekt Red For Less Than He Bargained For
heh. I would have never gave in and given him a dime more than the lump sum, he had no legal right to it.
The article states that a deal like this one can be reopen if the payment is inappropriately low. What is "inappropriate" is left to court interpretation, but it is usually applied to cases where the author didn't have full information (he didn't know how much something is worth, ideally: he was misinformed by the buyer).
This is not the case with The Witcher. At the time of the deal Sapkowski was already a renowned writer in Poland. CDPR was the largest game distributor, but had no game creation experience.
Few years earlier Sapkowski had already sold Witcher rights to another studio, but the game was canceled due to little interest.
As a result, it's quite understandable that he didn't believe in game success (or even: being finished).
In both cases Sapkowski asked a sum close to average yearly salary in Poland.
On the other hand...Try to understand the situation. You know CDPR as the big company behind a very popular game. Sapkowski may seem like a random, anonymous guy - just like all those Hollywood screenwriters that no one remembers.
However, in Poland Sapkowski is almost a legend - the second most popular fantasy author. The whole generation of 20-30 year olds grew up reading books about the Witcher. He's most likely also very respected among CDPR employees, so it was also a matter of their morale for sure.
So you may have lost a little respect, but in Poland (and among Sapkowski fans abroad) this will be seen as the right move.
I am always amazed by the sort of stuff hardcore CDRP fans say. CDRP is apparently physically unable to do anything wrong.
Do you know what contracts he signed and their details ? Do you know what they discussed prior to that and how whether or not he might have been misled/manipulated into taking certain decisions by CDRP and how any of this would weigh in court ? If anything the fact that they apparently settled on their own indicates CDRP might be trying to avoid something a lot messier than it seems at first sight.
The article that was used here is meant to protect artists who may not understand the value of their creations. Artists may not understand finance and may not know the market very well. Someone may say that it's against artists' nature to care about money. :-)
Anyway, Sapkowski understood the situation very well. The sum he got was, by all means, fair at the time. As mentioned above: he already did it once and the game wasn't even released.Foundation?
The story is clearly a "foundation" of any game, but not necessarily a foundation of the success.
Being based on a book famous in Poland surely helped locally, but what really rocketed these games to global fame was a combination of graphics and playing mechanics in second and, especially, third installment.
Witcher 1 wasn't very successful (CDPR almost went bankrupt after the release) despite being based on the same story. I read somewhere that more Witcher 1 copies were sold after the Witcher 3 success (via GOG and alike) than before.
Also, keep in mind Sapkowski wasn't harmed by the game success. Sales of his books exploded, he got some awards and distinctions that most likely wouldn't happen without the game. And he certainly negotiated a nice fee for the upcoming Netflix series.
You're right that it's for the court to decide how much the royalties owed should be, however when a company makes hundreds of millions based on an author's work then the court isn't going to decide he's only owed $5 lol.
It's also worth remembering that the article 44 statutory requirement for his royalties to be increased in line with what CDPR made wasn't the only legal cannon pointed at CDPR if this had gone to court, there is also the article 45 case that because the contract never specified it covered additional uses of the IP (such as Witcher 2, Witcher 3, Witcher TV series, et al) there was unpaid royalties due for these subsequent uses. In some ways CDPR should be thankfully he was only looking for fair payment for his work and not trying to take them for all he could get.
Had he just signed a percentage in the first place, he would be much happier. Instead, he didn't have faith that the games would turn into anything so he, probably smart at the time, took the option to get a larger sum up front than the though the games would get as a percentage. In retrospect, he made a poor decision and now wants a cut of someone else's pie. When he signed the rights over, it isn't exactly his IP alone anymore.Possibly, but more likely is they are watching a bunch of whiny, internet clowns crap all over 4A and want to avoid it even if they are right. In most cases, no body wins the beauty pageant in a court cases.This. They don't lose any of my respect for settling this. They may or may not have owed him anything. He may or may not have had legal ground. But, like Ford says, both parties are likely happy and nobody burned any bridges.
I mean no offense, but you should stop these theories and accept the fact that I know polish law better. :)Let's put aside the complicated problem of copyright for a moment. You're literally undermining the whole idea of "trading".
Just a short reminder: sometimes two parties meet, agree on a value of particular good or right and exchange it for money.
Simple fact is: at a time CDPR bought the rights to make the game, Witcher wasn't that hot. Books were popular, but everything else based on this story was pretty meh.
Neither of the sides could have known at the time that these games would become a great hit.
The law that Sapkowski was trying to use here doesn't apply to such cases. It only, and I repeat, ONLY applies to trades done with large information asymmetry.
Imagine a situation where Sapkowski is an immature student or a poor farmer, who somehow wrote a fantastic book and couldn't assess its value properly. A local agency notices it, tells him the story is interesting and it would like to print a few pieces. They pay a little sum. But they would be almost certain that the book will be selling like hot cakes and soon they're making millions. That is the kind of situation the law was designed to prevent (or rather: fix afterwards).
Also, lets just stress one important bit here. The story is great, but CDPR haven't bought the rights to the story. They can't sell books (an expected, fairly safe profit). They only bought the right to make a game based on this story.
And that's a totally different situation simply because not every successful book is turned into a successful game. It's a risk (investment) CDPR was willing to take.
I mean: good meat is a base of a good meat dish, but a particular butcher can't demand additional money just because Gordon Ramsay sold the steak for £100. This is NOT how the world works.This is incorrect. At this point I'm not sure if you're a Pole who doesn't understand this law or not a Pole who read something online and is making things up. Care to confess? :)
The article 45 of polish Act on Copyright concerns something called "fields of exploitation" (direct translation). This is the article:
"Article 45. Unless the contract provides otherwise, the author shall have the right to a separate remuneration for the use of the work in each separate field of exploitation."
A "field of exploitation" is defined as a way to use a particular work. So separate fields of exploitation would be: printing, recording, public showing and so on. So using a book as a basis for a game (or movie) is a field of exploitation. The article says that the copyright transfer agreement must state which fields of exploitation are covered and how much each of them contributes to the total sum.
For example: you're buying the rights to a song in Poland that will allow you to both sell mp3 and play it on the radio. You pay 1, but the contract must say that selling mp3 is worth 0.8 and playing on the radio is 0.2.
CDPR bought the right to use Sapkowski's Witcher story in their games. They can make as many games as they want. But they can't print the book nor make a movie.
And while we're at it: why would CDPR pay royalties for the TV series anyway? They aren't involved.
Mark 8:36
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?