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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Sciography on DVDs
Date: 06 Jul 2002 03:58:55 GMT
From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

>>Doubtful since it was owned by SFC not WB.
>
>It should all be owned by JMS! 

Unfortunately none of it is owned by jms.  The ironic part of it is, I had my
attorney recently review the B5 contracts I'd signed some years ago, in
preparation for a possible audit, but he explained that under the terms of the
contract, which was my first such created-by contract, with an agent who had
not really done those kinds of agreements before, an audit really wouldn't make
any difference....

...because as it's phrased, I will never, ever see a dime in profits from B5. 
Writers residuals, sure, though those gradually decrease with time.  But not a
dime in profits.  Ever.

(And no, there's no point to litigation because that's only useful to find
hidden profits; the way the contract reads and the amount of overhead and
distribution costs that can be taken eats any and all possible profits.)

Which is often the case with first-time series deals, though this was a little
more onerous than others.

Such is life.  I didn't do it to create a sinecure, I did it to tell a story,
and I'd do it again under the same deal.

And my contracts since then have been quite different.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)