The creator of The Witcher e book collection is demanding 60 million Polish Zloty (roughly $16 million USD) in royalties from game developer CD Projekt. An announcement posted by CD Projekt in a single day reveals that Andrezj Sapkowski, who printed eight Witcher novels between 1992 and 2013, “expects payment of additional royalties between himself” and the developer of the acclaimed Witcher trilogy.
CD Projekt says that on October 1, it “received an official demand for payment filed by plenipotentiaries of Mr Andrezj Sapkowski.” The creator expects royalties along with the deal he made to promote the rights to his novel collection to the developer within the early 2000s.
An English translation of a letter from Sapkowski’s lawyers claims that “the compensation remitted to the author is too low given the benefits obtained in association with the use of that author’s work.” Assuming a typical royalty fee of “approximately 5-15% of the profits generated”, Sapkowski’s attorneys are asking for six% “of the profits obtained” from CDPR’s use of The Witcher. Based on a report from CDPR, Sapkowski’s attorneys estimate these earnings are not less than one billion Polish Zlotys, thus arriving at that 60,000,000 Zloty determine.
The authorized foundation for this rests largely on Article 44 of Poland’s Act on Copyright and Related Rights, which happens within the occasion of gross discrepancy between an creator’s remuneration and the advantages accrued by the licensee. Sapkowski’s attorneys say that’s what’s occurred with The Witcher: “one might even say – egregiously so”, of their phrases. It could be for a decide to find out whether or not this is applicable, but it surely’s essential to notice that Sapkowski isn’t suing for breach of contract or something related.
That mentioned, the demand goes on to counsel that “careful reading of your contracts concluded with the Author might lead one to conclude that, if the company did effectively acquire any copyright at all, it concerned only the first in a series of games, and therefore distribution of all other games, including their expansions, add-ons etc, is, simply speaking, unlawful.”
This seems to forged aspersions on whether or not CDPR ever truly acquired copyright to the Witcher IP, and means that if it did so, it applies solely to the primary game, which got here out in 2007. That would imply that each 2011’s The Witcher 2 and 2015’s The Witcher 3 (in addition to the latter’s expansions) have been “simply speaking, unlawful”.
Sapkowski admitted in a Eurogamer interview final 12 months that he did agree that CD Projekt Red might make a Witcher game, and that the corporate supplied him “a big bag of money,” to permit them to work with the IP. He says that he was initially supplied royalties, however opted for a better payment as a result of he didn’t imagine in, and couldn’t foresee, the games’ success.
In a press release issued in response, CDPR says that “in the Company’s opinion the demands expressed in the notice are groundless with regard to their merit as well as the stipulated amount.” The developer claims that it “had legitmately and legally acquired copyright” to a number of games inside Sapkowski’s IP, that “all liabilities payable by the Company therewith have been properly discharged,” and that the collection is the corporate’s personal creation. You can learn an English translation of CD Projekt Red’s statement here.
Given that CDPR isn’t budging, the case would possibly now proceed to the courts, the place it’s seemingly a decide will rule on Article 44. We’ve reached out to CD Projekt Red for additional touch upon this story, and can replace as and after we study extra.
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