{"id":1713,"date":"2017-03-10T09:51:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T14:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2017-03-10T14:13:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T19:13:43","slug":"in-unity-there-better-be-paperwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=1713","title":{"rendered":"In Unity, There Better Be Paperwork"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cUnity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0That\u2019s a quote by the late child writer and poet, Mattie Stepanek. Jack was fortunate to photograph the author years ago at Mattie\u2019s home. It\u2019s a great quote because it rings true. Partnerships and collaborations, especially in the arts, can produce wonderful results. Mattie was right on with this quote.<\/p>\n

Ed, for those that might not be aware, is a lawyer, and his follow-up quote to Mattie\u2019s is \u201cMake sure you have a written collaboration or partnership agreement” . In the real world you need one. The absence of such an agreement may serve to fill the pockets of at least two attorneys and empty the wallets of their respective clients.<\/p>\n

These relationships are not unlike a bride and groom who have fallen madly in love. Each loves the way their partner does those little things.\u00a0 They love their partner\u2019s laugh, the way they raise their eyes at something said and they just adore the way the other sees the world. And yet, for more than 50% of those loving couples, once lovingly married, they later divorce. Many of those divorces are shall we say, “acrimonious”.<\/p>\n

They now hate the way the other does those little things, hate the way they laugh, hate the way they roll their eyes, hating the way their partner sees the world to the extent the two of them refuse to even be in the same room together.<\/p>\n

The two of us want to point out here that we\u2019ve each been (and are still) married to our first wives. We both believe in the institution of marriage. Why, together we\u2019ve been institutionalized for a combined 74 years! Thirty-seven years each. Why, we love being married and we\u2019d probably say this even if our wives didn\u2019t read what we write. (Insert smiley face. Can\u2019t be too safe.)<\/p>\n

The point is we\u2019ve both seen photographers get into collaborative situations with other artists, be it other photographers, illustrators, dancers, art directors, makeup artists, and so on. And some of these scenarios involve a real marriage between two artists or an artist married to an agent. The resulting works can be fabulous. The combination of talents can yield a greater result that the two separate talents ever could acting alone. And, from our combined experience, the more fabulous the resulting work, the more likely a divorce is likely. If you think the divorce movie \u201cThe War of the Roses\u201d was contentious, you ain\u2019t seen nothing until you see a dispute between creators, artists and agents.\u00a0 When the resulting work isn\u2019t so fabulous, it is less likely that a split will occur as there is less money to fight about.<\/p>\n

We have seen long-term successful partnerships over the years, but they are the exception rather than the rule. From our combined experience as a lawyer and a photographer, the rule for any such collaboration or partnership is to have it all in writing. At best, if things work out, it becomes an aging piece of paper in a drawer that no one ever looks at. You aren\u2019t compelled to live by all its rules, ala Sheldon\u2019s \u201cRoommate Agreement\u201d in the TV show, The Big Bang Theory<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But, and this is the big but<\/strong>, if anything goes south, if the partnership\/collaboration\/friendship\/marriage or whatever you choose to call it, sours, you have the blueprints of how to handle the split already on paper. Specifically who owns what, what is shared, how the breakup works should be spelled out. It is not unlike a pre-nuptial agreement that spares the parties aggravation, expenses including but not limited to attorneys\u2019 fees.\u00a0 Much easier on all parties, much less aggravation, and unfortunately for attorneys like Ed, lower fees.<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t be one of those people who later tell us that you read this, didn\u2019t do as we suggest here, find yourself in a battle and confess that you were forewarned by us.<\/p>\n

Better you\u2019re in the group that says, \u201cThank goodness I listened\u201d rather than having your lawyer ask\/tell you “You were told what to do but didn’t listen!?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cUnity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s a quote by the late child writer and poet, Mattie Stepanek. Jack was fortunate to photograph the author years ago at Mattie\u2019s home. It\u2019s a great quote because it rings true. Partnerships and collaborations, especially in the arts, can produce wonderful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,3,15,5,411,20],"tags":[622,624,621,623,419],"class_list":["post-1713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-be-aware","category-copyright-registration","category-legal","category-paperwork","category-quotes","category-stuff-you-should-know","tag-collaboration","tag-marriage","tag-mattie-stepanek","tag-partnerships","tag-quotes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}