Clause 18

This clause is incredibly overreaching, asking the author to give up too much.

CLAUSE TEXT:

[1] The AUTHOR and [distributor] intend this to be a contract for services and each considers the products and results of the services to be rendered by the AUTHOR hereunder (the "Work") to be a work made for hire. The AUTHOR acknowledges and agrees that the Work (and all rights therein, including, without limitation, copyright) belongs to and shall be the sole and exclusive property of [distributor].

[2] If for any reason the Work would not be considered a work made for hire under applicable law, the AUTHOR does hereby sell, assign, and transfer to [distributor] its successors and assigns, the entire right, title and interest in and to the copyright in the Work and any registrations and copyright applications relating thereto and any renewals and extensions thereof, and in and to all works based upon, derived from, or incorporating the Work, . . . throughout the world.

EXPLANATION:

This language is designed to grab all rights from a free-lance author or artist. The first clause purports to create a work for hire agreement, which would mean that the author has no rights left at all, ever (and cannot even get them back through the termination right). The second clause takes a belt-and-suspenders approach: if for any reason the work is not for hire -- which it would not be if the commissioned work did not fall within the statutory categories -- the author explicitly assigns all rights not only in this work, but in any work based on this work, for the full term of copyright, for the whole world.