MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION CHECKLIST 1. Development Environment used? Purchase Source Code Use Tools with runtime licence Develop own source code 2. Operating environments targeted? PC under Windows Apple Macintosh UNIX MS-DOS Tandy MPC PDA Newton Zoomer Other 3. Application audience Internal use, single site Internal use, multiple sites Commercial sale, single user Commercial sale, multiple user Commercial sale, network resource
2. Commercial sale, network publication 4. Data types to be included in proposed work Full ASCII text Images Fielded Data Tables Digitised audio CD audio Application programs Animation Video Text Indices 5. Application Features Data encryption Saved session Security key access Network functionality Interface application executable from CD Media and information updatable. Text proximity searching Assistance for visually or auditory impaired users Multiple language support - WorldScript
3. User applications inter-operable with derived data from information access by user 6. Packaging components CD-ROM disc printed inserts CD-ROM label artwork Slip Case, binder or box Documentation book1et User Command card Supplementary media material; print, sound cassette, video Registration card Floppy load disk Promotion literature Demo Disk
4. MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS - SOME GENERAL COMMENTS 1. Multimedia techniques and elements will generally form part of the underlying system specification. It is important to establish what programmatic components such elements rely upon and review the licensing requirements for such components. 2. Where you are acting on behalf of a developer, you need to ensure that the proprietorship of all core technology which underlies an application shell is sufficiently specified to enable you to protect the shell and all derivative technologies which flow from the shell and are not unique to the project. The developer needs to retain title to all inventions and improvements to its core technology which occur in the course of execution of a project. 3. Clients need to be aware that multimedia interfaces to information and transaction processing systems have the potential to change the "look and feel " debate, but as yet this potential is untried. The Comptons New Media patent has caused a review of software patents in the US Patents Office which is not yet completed. 4. For the foreseeable future, the most practical form of protection for multimedia interfaces will be in the commercial success of the products in which they appear. 5. Component description standards need to be keyed to normal bibliographic practices wherever possible. AUSMARC provides a key framework for developing this nomenclature. 6. The development plan for the system should define a disciplined process or methodology for transforming the creative vision of the project into a multimedia system. This is equally applicable to the creation of a discrete work.
5. MULTIMEDIA PUBLISHING - CONTRACT REVIEW CHECKLIST 1. Who are the parties to the contract and which jurisdictions apply to their existence and the proposed work? 2. What is the period of the agreement? How does this relate to the economic life of the proposed work? What rights does the publisher have to re-purpose his edition of the multimedia work? Is any option to renew the agreement reasonable in its terms and appropriate to the transaction? 3. What is the scope of rights sought? Are they appropriate to the intended work to be produced? (iv) How is the intended multimedia work described and what relationship does the authors materials have to the scope and scale of the multimedia work? Is the publisher demonstrably competent in his proposed publishing endeavours? What publishing platforms does the agreement permit? 4. What is the proposed remuneration to the author? Remuneration should be considered as an exchange of value for what benefit is the authors remuneration being exchanged? Is the originator also to be involved in the process of multimedia authorship? If so, in what respects? Is the proposed exchange reasonable?
6. (iv) Participatory royalties should be substantiated with a rights distribution model and disclosed margin structures. 5. Royalties (iv) How is remuneration for primary publication rights and subsidiary publication rights distinguished? Are all sources of revenue from the title caught in the income net of the royalty clause? How are royalty advances to be recouped. If royalties are on a net receipts basis, what controls exist over expenditures? (v) How are return reserves substantiated? 6 Delivery and Acceptance of the Authors material What rights are claimed over future editions of the work? (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) What quality assurance processes are appropriate to a work in existing publication? Can obligatory acceptance of already published galleys be enforced? What is the Authors responsibility in the multimedia authorship process? What copyright registrations are appropriate to the authors' materials? What authorial attribution is appropriate to the originator of the work? What verification of the integrity of authorship is appropriate? (viii) How is attribution of multimedia authorship to be handled?
7. (ix) What version control and quality assurance process is appropriate to the multimedia authorship process? 7. Exclusivity What is appropriate in scope? Does the claimed scope of exclusivity amount to an abuse of market power e.g. where the extent of the contract amounts to the electronic publication of a major market work, and the publisher has no compulsion to publish. This could lead to an abuse of power problem. Distinguish the roles of each party in the process of authorship, production, assembly, manufacture, distribution & sale and the potential each party has to damage the other in each capacity. 8 Title Indemnity What evidence of original authorship is held? Is a CAL or other applicable rights management agency copyright clearance appropriate for the project? 9. Audit Does this extend to both usage licence compliance and royalties? Is the audit period reasonable? 10. Termination Is there termination both for cause and without cause? What is the basis of compensation for the publisher in the event of a termination without cause? Is there a software escrow which is triggered on termination? (iv) What are each parties rights on termination? Do any restrictions on the author on termination amount to a restraint of trade?
8. 11. Assignment Is assignment permitted in the case of bona fide business reconstruction where the beneficial ownership of the assignee remains with the author? 12. Dispute Resolution Have you ensured that any arbiter has sufficient expertise to command the respect of both parties? Has the intention of the parties and their expectation of each other been expressed with sufficient certainty to enable the contract specifically enforceable without further construing of the document? 13. The Authors' Materials How are they defined and how do they relate to the intended use of the materials in the multimedia publication? What creative control can the author exert on the manner of use of the materials in the contract?
9. MULTIMEDIA DISTRIBUTION The distribution right needs to be carefully qualified if the distributor is not to receive an unqualified right to distribute the multimedia work. A way to approach the process of qualifying the distribution right is to adopt the following distinctions 1. Territory To be distinguished by: geographical area market and channel of delivery (i.e. storage format on which the work is delivered to the consumer). 2. Scope of Rights granted To be distinguished by: Extent of Distribution catalogue Manufacture Market Distribution 3. Scope of rights reserved To be the residue of rights not granted 4. Term of the Contract To be determinable for no compensation after an initial agreed period which is the minimum period required to obtain an economic return from a distributors efforts.
10. Distribution rights should be coextensive with a distributor s plans to distribute. The distributor should only acquire the rights required to underpin the expected scope of competent performance. 5. Scope of duties of the distributor To be settled as appropriate to the expected performance of the distributor. An outline checklist of the potential scope of duties is: Product Manufacture Product Support Physical Distribution Marketing Advertising Promotion 6. Distributor Remuneration Should be settled by reference to a margin model e.g. (a) 50% Retail margin (estimated discount of RRP) (b) 15% Distributor margin (c) 5% Marketing margin (d) 5% Manufacture margin (e) 25% Originator/Supplier margin (all creative and mechanical royalties are paid from this pool) The margin model should be objectively defensible as reward for risk assumed. The volatility and commercial uncertainties of multimedia mean that participants in areas of the above activities should have a rightful slice of the overall margin structure as a reward for their efforts.
11. In my experience, the above margin structure is a reflection of the risks and relative value added by each link in the distribution chain.