{"id":335,"date":"2013-04-22T19:27:43","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T18:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outofthedarkness.info\/blog\/?p=335"},"modified":"2013-04-23T00:06:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T23:06:10","slug":"legalism-and-contracts-the-ties-that-bind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outofthedarkness.info\/blog\/legalism-and-contracts-the-ties-that-bind\/","title":{"rendered":"Legalism and Contracts: The Ties That Bind"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I received my written contract from Frontier on Friday last week, I was extremely excited. Signing something makes it feel so official, so real. Then I read the contract. Frontier, like all companies, have to protect their interests\u2014especially when those interests are vested in intellectual property, trademarks, and copyrights for virtual created items. I’m sorry to break it to everyone, but the Elite: Universe<\/em> doesn’t exist as a physical entity, but only as a virtual and legal one. To say that intellectual property law is complex would be an understatement. Who owns what, and who has the right to use it and under what circumstances becomes a convoluted maze of legalistic verbage that will twist even the most stable individual in on themselves until they are wibbling and drooling like a wet sponge. I have been floating, mired, in the sucking mental mud that is a legal contract since Friday. My creativity has been sapped, as has much of my will to live.<\/div>\n
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Then a debate started on the forum about the legalities of submissions to Frontier’s writer’s forum. I won’t repeat it here\u2014it’s probably illegal to do so and a hanging offense, but for the masochistic this is the link<\/a>. Reading this sparked an idea\u2014a blueprint of freedom if you will\u2014to subdue David Braben and take over Frontier using the power of their terms and conditions against them. If I took over Frontier then any contract would be with myself, and so not needed. I could be free of this legalistic headache and get on with the story. Below is my attempt. Far from bringing freedom, it is a morality tale and line of reasoning that does not end well….<\/div>\n
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The Plan:<\/strong><\/div>\n
So, if I submit something to this forum asking if it’s okay for a submission on the forum to be used elsewhere, it can be used by Frontier when they quote it on the forum to say that it’s okay for them to use it elsewhere and okay for me to use it elsewhere. But, can I quote Frontier’s quote of my submission, or does that mean that I have plagiarised Frontier when I quote their quote of my submission? Or, does the fact that I have quoted Frontier’s quote of my submission mean that, because my submission is my own work and that I still have ownership, that I have ownership of Frontier’s quote? Is the act of quoting, as it is an act that can only be done once by any individual at a specific place and time therefore the production of a unique work? And if this is the case, is Frontier’s quotation of my submission therefore a unique work so that ownership of my submission passes to Frontier in the process of creating the unique work that is their quotation? And if that is the case, can I, by quoting Frontier’s quotation of my submission create another unique work thereby gaining not only the rights of ownership to my original submission, but also the rights to Frontier’s quotation of my submission? Can I also, by quoting David Braben or Michael Brookes on this forum, gain ownership of them using the maxim that an author always puts part of themselves in to any words they produce. Or, are DB and MB counted as unique works in their own right? But, if I quote my own quote of DB or MB’s writing on this forum, does that not mean I gain ownership, having created another unique work of my own which is the new quote, of a little bit more of them, and as I have now nested quotes each containing elements of their inner essence, that nesting quotes within quotes of their writing will exponentially increase the amount of both Michael and David that I own? Eventually I will own them in totality, and by extension both Frontier Developments and Elite: Dangerous. But as David will have signed some forms to establish his ownership of Frontier, that means that part of his soul\u00a0is\u00a0Frontier Developments and thus I cannot possess him in totality. And that seed, that is the David-within-Frontier, means that David-is-Frontier. And according to the terms of use on this forum Frontier can reuse anything that I post, so if David-Frontier were to quote my quote of all my quotes quoting Frontier quoting my submission, then he would be generating a unique work that contained my writing. And, as I am what I write, David-that-is-Frontier would now possess a multitude of me-quotes, and so possess me. And, as according to the terms of use of this forum I am not allowed to break the terms of use and David-that-is-Frontier will have used those terms of use against me I would have no recourse. I would be David-that-is-Frontiers’ thrall, minion and belonging, forever and in perpetuity. Amen.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Let that be a lesson to all. Legal agreements (the word binding is unnecessary as all legal agreements are binding) are the exact opposite of Occam’s razor<\/a>, and cut much more deeply. They always subdue and always stifle, but there is no shortcut, no easy way around. Until I have negotiated the minefield of legalism that has twisted my brain, twined my creativity, and will probably turn my manhood, work on the story is on hold. I, a writer and so someone who is supposed to have enough power over words to free imagination, is tied by them until further notice.<\/div>\n
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(No lawyers or solicitors were harmed in the writing of this blog post. I only wish they had been.)<\/div>\n
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Image credit:\u00a0Businesswoman Wrapped In Red Tape<\/i>: \u00a9 Scott Griessel – Fotolia.com. Usage rights purchased.<\/div>\n

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