It appears that developer CD Projekt Red has relented to the demands of The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski, after the latter threatened legal action late last year. Sapkowski claimed that he wasn't given enough compensation for his intellectual property when he gave the rights to CD Projekt Red in order to create a game. The developer fired back, stating that the author was given the chance to have a percentage of the profits, but he believed the games would not sell well, so he took the initial flat fee payment, which was about $9,300. After a few months of discussion, the two entities have come to an agreement, with CD Projekt Red offering an undisclosed amount to Sapkowski to make sure he'll remain on good terms with the company, though it is nowhere near the originally requested $16 million.

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 Company had legitimately and legally acquired copyright to Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, i.a. insofar as is required for its use in games developed by the Company. All liabilities payable by the Company in association therewith have been properly discharged.

It is the Company’s will to maintain good relations with authors of works which have inspired CD PROJEKT RED’s own creations. Consequently, the Board will go to great lengths to ensure amicable resolution of this dispute; however, any such resolution must be respectful of previously expressed intents of both parties, as well as existing contracts.

Source: (Polish)
Translation via wccftech

 

[spectral]

Most people here are looking at it from a US legal system point of view. There are laws in place in Poland to protect IP owners who were under paid for the rights to use their IP. Now whether he could have won or not is besides the point, it would end up time consuming and expensive. If they can get him off their back for significantly less than it would cost them to fight it, it makes sense to just have the mess go away.

 

[Steena]

Most people here are looking at it from a US legal system point of view. There are laws in place in Poland to protect IP owners who were under paid for the rights to use their IP. Now whether he could have won or not is besides the point, it would end up time consuming and expensive. If they can get him off their back for significantly less than it would cost them to fight it, it makes sense to just have the mess go away.

do you have any more information about this polish protection? seems bizarre to me. the guy was already a renowned professional in its own country and just bet wrong on the profitability of a deal. i doubt it falls under "protection", otherwise everyone in poland should become investors and retroactively change their choices once they see how investments play out so they can win.

 

[spectral]

do you have any more information about this polish protection? seems bizarre to me. the guy was already a renowned professional in its own country and just bet wrong on the profitability of a deal. i doubt it falls under "protection", otherwise everyone in poland should become investors and retroactively change their choices once they see how investments play out so they can win.

No specific details as I'm no lawyer and certainly not a Polish lawyer. It was mentioned in the original articles. It not a protection for investments, its specifically for people licensing out IP they created. From what I could tell it is meant to stop big companies from getting away with bullying people into selling rights for less than they are worth. It's also not a guarantee, the courts could find the deal was above board. But whereas in the US where it likely wouldn't even make it as far as it has, in Poland it would end up in court.

Personally I think he would have lost if it had gone to court, but its not an uncommon business practice to settle to make it just go away.

 

[Deleted User]

I think they paid him off. So they focus on working on CyberPunk 2077 without any distractions.

 

[Steena]

From what I could tell it is meant to stop big companies from getting away with bullying people into selling rights for less than they are worth.
Personally I think he would have lost if it had gone to court, but its not an uncommon business practice to settle to make it just go away.

the thing is CDP was a literal nobody modding team before they got into the witcher, even for TW1 they were irrelevant, they got to fame status with the release of 2. Whereas the witcher writer i heard was a big shot mainstream novelist in poland. He was clearly the big guy, and held resentment because CDPR's interpretation of the witcher became insanely more popular than his reaching worldwide fame, i remember articles about him condemning the poor treatment of the lore from the studio.
But anyways, yeah it seems the matter will be settled prioritizing the fast completion

 

[daijobu]

I’d also be fucking pissed off if I lost millions over an unlucky decision.

except he didn't lose anything. He didn't make the game, so why should he get a cut of the profits the game has made? He deemed his IP to only worth 9000$ when he sold it and that was that. He has zero claim to anything else whatsoever so it's weird that you somehow think he lost something.

 

[noobita029]

Very wise decision on the part of cd projekt red. Just think of it as an investment, it might payoff big in the future

 

[Bladexdsl]

The developer fired back, stating that the author was given the chance to have a percentage of the profits, but he believed the games would not sell well

than it's his stupid fault he missed his opportunity than

say i wanted to invest in something and it made millions o shit i should sue them because i didn't invest. same shit he made the wrong decision and now his bitching and whining about all the lost $. too bad his been paid his fee he decided to take he should get NOTHING else

 

[Taleweaver]

I find it really strange how people can have opinions on this matter when the important details for that opinion are undisclosed.

The author could've gotten anywhere from a proverbial 1 buck to up to 15 million dollars. That's a pretty wide range to make claims that either side got screwed. So as such, wouldn't it be wiser to just shut up and go with the article? If Projekt Red and Andrzej Sapkowski can reach an agreement, who are you really to dispute that agreement without even knowing the details?


That said...I am certainly glad they reached an agreement. I've recently read up on the history of board games, and there are some glaring examples of the original author literally being withheld millions because they underestimated the value of their ideas. I know USA prides itself on being the country of opportunities, but with these kind of "if you're not cautious enough to keep a share in your ideas you deserve to be screwed" attitudes, you'll end up being the country of opportunities to get screwed. Because make no mistake: the difference between a well written game and a blandly written game is huge. As such: make sure you create opportunities that satisfy good writers.
That's of course just my opinion. Feel free to disagree, obviously.

 

[FAST6191]

I find it really strange how people can have opinions on this matter when the important details for that opinion are undisclosed.

The author could've gotten anywhere from a proverbial 1 buck to up to 15 million dollars. That's a pretty wide range to make claims that either side got screwed. So as such, wouldn't it be wiser to just shut up and go with the article? If Projekt Red and Andrzej Sapkowski can reach an agreement, who are you really to dispute that agreement without even knowing the details?


That said...I am certainly glad they reached an agreement. I've recently read up on the history of board games, and there are some glaring examples of the original author literally being withheld millions because they underestimated the value of their ideas. I know USA prides itself on being the country of opportunities, but with these kind of "if you're not cautious enough to keep a share in your ideas you deserve to be screwed" attitudes, you'll end up being the country of opportunities to get screwed. Because make no mistake: the difference between a well written game and a blandly written game is huge. As such: make sure you create opportunities that satisfy good writers.
That's of course just my opinion. Feel free to disagree, obviously.

The whole debate goes back for probably centuries though if you want to go performance rights but the debate with such things and sessions musicians and session artists extends past the lifetimes of anybody ever likely to read this. If they could have been shown to have acted in bad faith somewhere in their earlier agreements then there might be something. Personally I quite like fair systems and magically finding yourself on the hook for royalties because someone changed their mind after you got successful is a hard thing to base a business on.

 

[tomGER]

While it's good on them for trying to stay in the authors good graces? I'm more interested to have seen how far the legal battle could have gone.

"They infringed my copyright"
- "no"

The End

 

[leon315]

that greedy fuck should be gladfull now that thanks to CD projekt the Witcher book franchise gained so much fame and sales, i even bought 4 hard cover books, now i don't feel right to support him anymore.

 

[spectral]

"They infringed my copyright"
- "no"

The End

Well that has nothing to do with this, well done.

 

[sj33]

There’s a fair bit of misinformation here in these comments.

Unlike most other countries, Poland does have an explicit legal procedure to renegotiate a contract in cases where the agreed sum is disproportionate to the accumulated value. Cases like these are exactly what the law is there to enable, to protect creators.

 

[FAST6191]

There’s a fair bit of misinformation here in these comments.

Unlike most other countries, Poland does have an explicit legal procedure to renegotiate a contract in cases where the agreed sum is disproportionate to the accumulated value. Cases like these are exactly what the law is there to enable, to protect creators.

We did have a discussion about that law in the other thread when it was first announced.

Still I don't like the idea that a session musician or someone content to act similarly can come back and try to get something more if it turns out they made the wrong bet. By all means have protections for when someone abused their power in contract negotiations somehow (something I would be willing to bet is in all places you might care to do business, or at least the legal framework to generate such results) but I don't see that as the case here.

 

[Sabarek]

I really wish The Witcher 3 would allow you to slightly change Geralt's behavior because... well, he reminds me of Sapkowski. I read some interviews with him and I often felt like he just wrote himself into his books to imagine that he has sex with all the girls and is a "cool guy". Nobody even likes Sapkowski in Poland's literature circles.
The game is definitely great and very nicely developed, but I never see myself liking Geralt. I liked that you could change his hair, beard and say less offensive things in dialogue of the third game but it was not enough.