Hi Eric Very good points.
We have been going through this at the moment as a lot of our students have been offered an opportunity. It is funded by what we call SETA’s here in South Africa. They are designed to allow people to be paid for building expertise in a commercial company. A paid internship if you will We got to see the contract when they asked for advice (which is one of the first things you need to be able to do) There was a large amount of legal speak and quite a few points that needed to be clarified. To their credit they did a good job of this. We are only able to take a small class so we can be a bit more involved. Even so we have had past students getting in over their heads and ending up leaving the vfx community. Its a problem broader then VFX. Universities for the most part teach no life skills, fewer and fewer kids are getting them from parents or their schools. A large percentage of people leaving educational institutions are woefully unprepared for real life. For us though we have additional issues, the expectations on people in the industry has increased far beyond those of many other industries , and this change has mostly happened over the last 20 years or so. People have been so busy trying to meet deadlines and do amazing stuff that they have left these issues in the hands of the very people who have the most to gain from not looking after them well. Eric has hit the nail on the head. People need to be far more circumspect about what they sign, spend more time making sure its in their best interests. Yes it does need to be brought up the school / university level , but also needs to spread even to people who have been working a long time. Kind regards Angus From: Eric Lampi <ericla...@gmail.com<mailto:ericla...@gmail.com>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>> Date: Wednesday 29 October 2014 at 9:39 PM To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" <softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>> Subject: Re: New ww.Lagoa.com This highlights an issue that has been on my mind as of late. I am not directing this at anyone in particular... How to read a contract. Art/Animation schools don't teach students anything about how to read contracts or how to manage your intellectual property rights. It's time they started and I will tell you why... If animators had been treating this like a business and not a hobby starting 20 years ago, the landscape of VFX would look far different today. If you're tired of creatives getting screwed by slick business people, you have to understand what you are getting yourself into and not be freaked out by legalese. The fact is, you are not signing over any more rights than what is explicitly written in the contract. They need to be able to store, copy and display the data just for purposes of putting it on the website and their cloud service and there is a time limit for how long they can use it after you stop paying for the service. Also, you privacy is protected because while they collect data on you and other users about how they utilize the platform (presumably for user research), your personal information isn't attached to it. There is no language in there regarding IP or ownership, you have nothing to worry about. My 2 cents, Eric On Oct 29, 2014 1:47 PM, "Leendert A. Hartog" <hirazib...@live.nl<mailto:hirazib...@live.nl>> wrote: The terms you quote are reason enough for people like me to generally distrust any service like this. The attempts to sugarcoat it as clumsy wording is a bit problematic too IMHO: if it can be worded better, do so: word it better! These aren't playground discussions, these are the basis for binding contracts. [/rant] Greetz Leendert -- Leendert A. Hartog AKA Hirazi Blue Administrator NOT the owner of si-community.com<http://si-community.com> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width:100%;"> <tr> <td align="left" style="text-align:justify;"><font face="arial,sans-serif" size="1" color="#999999"><span style="font-size:11px;">This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary. </span></font></td> </tr> </table>
