Just in case you didn’t know…
It doesn’t happen very often, but Nickelodeon’s accepting pitches for comedy shorts - has to be SUITABLE for KIDS. (And they MEAN short - 60 seconds.)
If you don’t know what a pitch is, it’s explained on Nickelodeon’s page.
Deadline’s March 30.
Wait: here’s the link:
http://signup.viacom.com/NickShortsPitches/NickShortsPitchSubmission.aspx
looks interesting and you get to keep your rights to your work etc
however this term confused me
"However, you cannot and will not assume or infer from the fact that VMN will accept your offer to submit your Material to VMN, that VMN regards your Material, or any part thereof, as novel, valuable or usable. You recognize that other persons including VMN employees may have submitted to VMN or to others or made public, or may hereafter originate and submit or make public, similar or identical material which VMN shall have the right to use, and you understand that you will not be entitled to any compensation because of VMN’s use of such other similar or identical material. Subject to the foregoing provisions, VMN will not make any use of any legally protectable portion of your Material unless you and VMN have agreed in a writing signed by both parties concerning your compensation for such use, which compensation shall in no event be greater than the compensation normally paid by VMN for similar Material from comparable sources."
I read it a few times and it sounds like they are allowed to copy you? Maybe someone can clear up what it actually means.
I’m not a lawyer…
but it sounds to me like the artist submitting work is allowed to keep rights to their work…
and agree that VMN has the right to create similar or identical work…
that then becomes their creation…
and that the artist that submitted the original work (idea - concept) in the first place agrees that if VMN were to use
any ‘legally protectable’ portion of the original work (that probably means any part with $$$ paid for, legally filed copyright protection)…
that VMN could use that part too, so long as they paid next to zilch for it.
Check out Art Buchwald and his tale about writing and presenting an original screenplay that was eerily similar to the screenplay and concept for the film, “Coming to America.”
But then again, I’m not a lawyer.
Consider that it’s not about Viacom claiming any right to copy, but inserting language to protect themselves:
"you recognize that other persons including VMN employees or may hereafter originate and submit or make public, similar or identical material which VMN shall have the right to use, and you understand that you will not be entitled to any compensation because of VMN’s use of such other similar or identical material.
In this world of a shared visual vocabulary and popular tastes , it’s just not that unlikely that some characters might end up looking a lot like other characters. There’s no end to character designs that look a lot like they came from the Disney factory.
I’d suggest that they’re only saying that someone ELSE might submit a character that looks - to your eye - suspiciously like YOUR character.
Good news is that no one has to submit anything. (yay! You’ve got to love a choice …)
I do agree, I am sure the intent is as suggested. But the way it is written could easily be taken a different way.
I just posted it because I found it very interesting. As a non legal people, reading the T&C can often be confusing and scary.
PS has anyone actually read apples T&C, it is like a bible? I certainly haven’t and i agreed to it. So I guess they own my soul or something! ;D
Thanx ScaryFairy,
I’m going to enter. I wouldn’t sweat the legalese. Everybody’s afraid of lawsuits. If they get 1000 entries, 800 of them are going to have very similar characters. So they’re just protecting themselves against lawsuits.
I just submitted my pitch (2 hours before deadline).
Curious to see if anyone else submitted, and what.
(Mine’s a kids’ fantasy comedy)
~ Justin
Good luck 
I didn’t, but I am not sure I could do this with passion. I tend to be geared towards more adult cartoons/animations.
Great, Justin!! I think a fantasy comedy makes a really good pitch. I hope they’re all over it! Good, good luck!
I was going to (well, I actually did) submit something I was playing with, and OF COURSE I, too, waited til the last second. It was only after I’d reached the submission page that I realized all the material they wanted. Eeeek.
I mean, I had the character and a part of the script, but I hadn’t actually finished a stand alone story. Ha! So. I had to do some reallly fast stuff.
I’m a lot like @TheRaider. Even though kids will laugh at my stuff, it’s usually because they don’t get the subtext. (Whew. :))
Oh, here. Here’s what I was going to attach, all by itself
http://youtu.be/6K6RuTjoRlU
It was the way I resolved it that makes it kind of … well, WE laughed.
Good luck to you!
I liked your entry
The animation was nice too.
Edited:
I think that this is an interesting time that we live in, where so much of our work is going into an online space. There are many people that post their work on YouTube, and gain a fan following, and from there they get their work licensed professionally. However whenever you post something online, you are opening up to the risk of someone taking your idea.
What concerns me about this statement (and I’ve only read what’s been copied in here, not the original) is that it seems as though Nickelodeon is absolving themselves of any responsibility for giving credit to the artist.
However that being said, perhaps that’s not the case - perhaps that’s simply how I’m reading it. Perhaps what they are really writing is that they are saying that if different people come up with a similar idea, and they go with one person’s idea instead of another, that there is no wrongdoing there. Which is true. We live in an information age where there are many people that copy ideas, whether it’s simply taking inspiration from a film you went to go see, or whether it’s looking at an animation that you like and copying it.
So perhaps it should be taken with a grain of salt. I won’t say whether to enter, or whether not to, that’s up to you.
~Lilly
Good luck Justin!
~Lilly