Witcher author demands an extra $16 million from CD Projekt for rights to license, company...

[midian182]

What just happened? The Witcher franchise, especially the brilliant third entry and its expansions, have made developer CD Projekt a lot of money. So much, in fact, that the author of the original books, Andrzej Sapkowski, is demanding $16 million in additional royalties from the company, which has refused his request.

Back in the early 2000s, Sapkowski, who had eight of his Witcher novels published between 1992 and 2013, sold the video game rights to CD Projekt for a lump sum rather than a percentage of the profits.

The Polish company says it received “an official demand for payment filed by plenipotentiaries of Mr Andrzej Sapkowski.” The author and his team say the original deal was only for the first game in the Witcher series, and he is owed royalties for all the subsequent titles.

A translated letter from Sapkowski’s lawyers states that “careful reading of your contracts concluded with the Author might lead one to conclude that, if the company did effectively acquire any copyright at all, it concerned only the first in a series of games, and therefore distribution of all other games, including their expansions, add-ons etc, is, simply speaking, unlawful.”

Sapkowski and his legal team say he is due between 5 percent and 15 percent of the games’ profits. His lawyers are asking for 6 percent of the profits gained from the Witcher series, which works out at 60 million Polish zlotys (over $16 million).

Sapkowski said in an interview with Eurogamer last year that CD Projekt originally offered him a cut of the games' profits, but he said no and took a single, large fee as he didn’t believe they would be successful. A move he called “stupid.”

Not surprisingly, CD Projekt has rejected Sapkowski's demands. “In the Company’s opinion the demands expressed in the notice are groundless with regard to their merit as well as the stipulated amount,” wrote the developer.

“The Company had legitimately and legally acquired copyright to Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, insofar as is required for its use in games developed by the Company. All liabilities payable by the Company in association therewith have been properly discharged.”

Given that CD Projekt isn’t about to hand over $16 million to Sapkowski, it appears that the case could be heading for the courts. With a new Gwent-based standalone game—Thronebreaker—about to be released, and the Netflix TV series set to arrive in 2020 (in which Sapkowski serves as creative consultant), it looks as if the Witcher name will be in the spotlight for plenty more years to come.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/76721-witcher-author-demands-extra-16-million-cd-projekt.html

 

[toooooot]

I am with game makers, however: have they signed a contract stating they have the right for ONE game and made 3.....They would lose in this scenario in court.

 

[TomSEA]

Sapkowski said in an interview with Eurogamer last year that CD Projekt originally offered him a cut of the games' profits, but he said no and took a single, large fee as he didn’t believe they would be successful. A move he called “stupid.”

And that's the end of that - he self-admitted the contract he signed and it was stupid on his part. This lawsuit is going nowhere.

 

[fps4ever]

Sapkowski said in an interview with Eurogamer last year that CD Projekt originally offered him a cut of the games' profits, but he said no and took a single, large fee as he didn’t believe they would be successful. A move he called “stupid.”

And that's the end of that - he self-admitted the contract he signed and it was stupid on his part. This lawsuit is going nowhere.

"I made a legally binding bad decision, but that shouldn't count so I want my munay now"!

Sounds like CD Project might work with anyway him for some kind of resolution.

 

[TomSEA]

Sapkowski said in an interview with Eurogamer last year that CD Projekt originally offered him a cut of the games' profits, but he said no and took a single, large fee as he didn’t believe they would be successful. A move he called “stupid.”

And that's the end of that - he self-admitted the contract he signed and it was stupid on his part. This lawsuit is going nowhere.

"I made a legally binding bad decision, but that shouldn't count so I want my munay now"!

Sounds like CD Project might work with anyway him for some kind of resolution.

Yup - couldn't hurt to cut him a "good faith" check.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Offer him 1mil [4 mil max]. Tell him to take it or go home with nothing.

 

[VitalyT]

but he said no and took a single, large fee as he didn’t believe they would be successful. A move he called "stupid."

Between that and what he is doing now, makes him a stinky leach.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Between that and what he is doing now, makes him a stinky leach.

If the contract can be interpreted for only one game, that would make a difference. I however don't think it will.

 

[LeroN]

Some kind of advertising of the new TV show for potential sponsors. Looks like it's going not so good and I am not surprised.

 

[ShObiT]

Sapkowski said in an interview with Eurogamer last year that CD Projekt originally offered him a cut of the games' profits, but he said no and took a single, large fee as he didn’t believe they would be successful. A move he called “stupid.”

And that's the end of that - he self-admitted the contract he signed and it was stupid on his part. This lawsuit is going nowhere.

"I made a legally binding bad decision, but that shouldn't count so I want my munay now"!

Sounds like CD Project might work with anyway him for some kind of resolution.

Taking into account that he IS involved in the Netflix Series, he saw the money Netflix is willing to pay for it, and now he want more money, but I don't see how he can win any case in court, specially when he admitted that the company DID offer a fair deal.

 

[emmzo]

I bought his books thanks to the Witcher game, I bet lots of people did and they`re not that awesome, by the way. The Netflix show is in the works, so more money to be had there. The way I see it is this guy was brought to the heights of success by CDProject, who even offered him more money and now he`s just being a cxnt.

 

[Evernessince]

I am with game makers, however: have they signed a contract stating they have the right for ONE game and made 3.....They would lose in this scenario in court.

They signed for all video game rights of the franchise, period. They originally offered him royalties but he turned it down for a lump sum. Seems pretty obvious that he choose wrong and is now crying about it.

 

[Polycount]

As a long term fan of both Sapkowski and CD Projekt Red, I have to side with CDPR in this case. The letter itself, especially the last bit, seems to come dangerously close to extortion-like language. "If this was made public, it would hurt your stock, so let's settle it quietly and quickly," is what I took away from it (and that's just my personal take, of course).

We will have to wait and see how this shakes out.

 

[nazartp]

I bought his books thanks to the Witcher game, I bet lots of people did and they`re not that awesome, by the way. The Netflix show is in the works, so more money to be had there. The way I see it is this guy was brought to the heights of success by CDProject, who even offered him more money and now he`s just being a cxnt.

Being honest, books lose a lot in the translation, plus they were quite different from anything else that was out there at the time. Without seeing the contract, I cannot say anything about the legitimacy of the claims. Not sure if it is true, but there seems to be a provision in the Polish law allowing to adjust royalties if the acquisition price for the rights was highly disproportionate to the income derived. It is primarily used to protect the IP owners from unscrupulous counterparties. To me, for that claim to stand, the intent to misguide the Ip owner needs to be shown. He took the money to avoid risk and is left with a dollar instead of the winning lottery ticket.

 

[Adi6293]

What an old greedy man, really disappointed with him.....

 

[cliffordcooley]

What an old greedy man, really disappointed with him.....

Awe come on! You can't make me believe you wouldn't try the same thing, if you had the opportunity.

 

[merikafyeah]

What an old greedy man, really disappointed with him.....

Awe come on! You can't make me believe you wouldn't try the same thing, if you had the opportunity.

Try what? Read more into an already established contract than what was initially written? I haven't heard of any similar precedent for something like this. When the video game rights were signed over to CDPR there was no explicit clause pertaining to the number of games CDPR could make. A game contract to adapt say, the first Harry Potter book and a contract to produce games for the entire Harry Potter series would look completely different and there is no way anyone would confuse the two. In the case of the former, there would also technically be nothing stopping the developer from splitting the story of the first book into multiple parts/games "Hobbit-trilogy-style" if they were insane, barring explicit wording forbidding said action in the contract.

Here. the author basically wants a percentage of the video game profits, which were initially offered to him but he turned it down for a lump sum instead. He now regrets his decision but the ink is already dry, and CDPR is responding with the legal equivalent of "no-take-backsies".

That's the whole story. Sapkowski doesn't have a case.

 

[Buhaj]

We have an article in Polish law that states:

"In the case of a gross disproportion between the remuneration of the creator and the benefits of the buyer of the author's economic rights or the licensee, the creator may demand an appropriate increase in remuneration by the court."

I hope the court does not treat it as an excuse to give money to Sapkowski he DOES NOT deserve. Deals have to be honored.

 

[Polycount]

We have an article in Polish law that states:

"In the case of a gross disproportion between the remuneration of the creator and the benefits of the buyer of the author's economic rights or the licensee, the creator may demand an appropriate increase in remuneration by the court."

I hope the court does not treat it as an excuse to give money to Sapkowski he DOES NOT deserve. Deals have to be honored.

Aye. I'd heard about that. If it's the law, it's the law, but I note that it doesn't say he will necessarily receive it - just that he can demand it "by the court," which seems to imply he will actually need to make his argument. I think, if that were to happen, CDPR would win.

Sapkowski arguably now has a Netflix series because of the popularity of the games, and his books now have an international audience (With English translations, official and unofficial) that he never would have gotten without CDPR. They might argue that he's already been well-compensated due to their work, and that he doesn't deserve more.

 

[Adi6293]

Awe come on! You can't make me believe you wouldn't try the same thing, if you had the opportunity.

I'm not going to lie, I would probably get a mental breakdown if I was in his shoes and made such a bad decision BUT at the same time those games made him famous world wide and I'm sure Netflix is paying him for the rights to the show as well so all in all he is still getting and Poland is a cheap country to live in, I know because I lived there for 15 years, if he really wanted to go this route he should have asked for $1 million and he would never have to sell another book and nobody would know that he's just an ********