How to Discredit a Former Employer?

[Meteo Xavier]

And now for something completely different.

From August 2014 to late October 2015, I was working with a development team for a Dreamcast game. At first I joined to do the music and I ended up having responsibilities for writing and other administration on there. Everything was going good for a while, but somewhere around the Summer, things went sour and I'm still not even totally sure what happened or how it happened. I left just one day short of Halloween when it became clear after months of no one talking to me about anything or even being acknowledged that someone was working on the story/script that they didn't even consider me a part of their development group anymore. I told them I quit, quit out of all their stuff, and didn't hear a word back from them and I thought that was it. By my estimates, they wasted 300 hours of my time, among other things, even after I agreed to their NDA and after the lead person accepted, in writing, my terms for working on the project.

Recently I discovered that, even though they seemed to have gotten the message I quit and referenced someone leaving in frustration in a blog article they did (which I suspect was me), they were still using the ONE thing I did they actually seemed to acknowledge me for, which was a title theme, as posted on their Soundcloud and presumably whenever the game is supposed to be done. I wrote them about it and while I succeeded in getting them to take it off (itself taking a week), they acknowledged they knew I had left AND WAS STILL GOING TO USE IT.

As you've seen me post on here, I have some pretty liberal views when it comes to being a freelance worker on an indie game, but this is simply unacceptable. This is straight up bad business and I want to discredit their name both for my personal satisfaction and to warn others about working with them. I knew it was potentially risky when I signed up for it, same as every other job I want to take, but bad business is bad business. I still have a reputation of difficulty myself, but I made and continue to make every effort I can to not employ any of that in a business environment. I made conditions for working and I got agreement in writing. That is a contract and they broke my contract while still intending to use work I did on it.

So I ask you, Ocremix, have you ever had to speak out against a company/brand/group or something like this and if so, how do you go about doing it? I'm not going to just let it go and chalk it up to experience, and I don't think legal action can apply here either (I'm also not afraid of them suing me either, as I don't think they can fuckin' afford it and the leader of the group literally cannot think that way). I also want to be careful not to disparage the PUBLISHER, because I talked to them and they were far more professional. I have only praises to sing for them. 

What does thou think, Ocremixst?

[Moseph]

Why don't you think legal action can apply? That seems to me to be the most straightforward way to approach it. Pay a lawyer to write them a letter explaining that it's illegal to use the music, and if they then release the game with the music still in it, sue them.

Beyond that, if the publisher understands the situation and acknowledges that there is possibly copyright infringement going on in the music, it seems unlikely to me that they'll let the game get released with the music in it. They won't want the potential legal headache.

[Garpocalypse]

2015?  Dreamcast game?? Start spilling.  

 

[Meteo Xavier]

Because legal action, even when you're in the right, is a huge fucking mess that I don't have time or energy to deal with. If I found out they were STILL using music I did for the game in there, I definitely would, but even still - the ratio of extra work versus satisfaction of possible victory is pretty much not in one's favor.

I won't get much out of that, I want to discredit them on grassroot levels and use my experience as a cautionary tale for other freelancers. I want it known the leader of the group does bad business and will waste your time if you try to join them. I wanted to be the "bigger man" or whatever and just leave and cut my losses when I quit back in October, but when I found out they didn't even remove the fucking song and was still crediting me under my real name... well, it hits on an emotional level. I can't pretend it's not personal. Once you do bad business, it's not about business anymore. Once you quit and they still find a way to screw you, it's personal. Even indie developers have to learn their place when it comes to the workforce and not treat people this way.

Legal action is when you're out for blood, I simply want them to learn what happens when you fuck with people who believed in you and was willing to participate in your project for minimal pay and maximum passion.

[Frederic Petitpas]

Dreamcast...

[Nabeel Ansari]

9 hours ago, Meteo Xavier said:

So I ask you, Ocremix, have you ever had to speak out against a company/brand/group or something like this and if so, how do you go about doing it? I'm not going to just let it go and chalk it up to experience, and I don't think legal action can apply here either (I'm also not afraid of them suing me either, as I don't think they can fuckin' afford it and the leader of the group literally cannot think that way). I also want to be careful not to disparage the PUBLISHER, because I talked to them and they were far more professional. I have only praises to sing for them. 

What does thou think, Ocremixst?

There are two practical solutions to this problem.

1. Take legal action. Teach the developer what happens when they "fuck with you" (I think your reaction to what they did is super questionable, but it stands regardless). This actually solves a problem and you've definitively reduced the risk of someone else getting "fucked with" because the developer will be more cautious with how he treats his contractors.

2. Move on. If it's not worth the effort to do number 1, it's not worth the effort to do anything. Trying to put out a big word to stop random sap freelancers from working with some team making a dreamcast game in 2015 is just going to be a waste of tons of your hours. It's not possible. You don't have the public outrage or industry pull; no one does. That's a monumental task. Even getting a big article out on all major game journalist sites (no journalist site would actually run that article anyway), they'd still very easily find some clueless freelancer to work with. You can't discredit someone without virality, and your story, truth to be told, isn't really crazy enough to go viral. A viral story about "some dev who's still making dreamcast games giving their composer freelancer the cold shoulder and thinking it was okay to put up their song and credit them but then taking it down when they saw it wasn't" isn't really the kind of thing people would get excited over.

Seriously, I'm not saying this to be demeaning; if this is about wasted time to you, the best thing to do is stop wasting your time on it. Realistically, you can't really expect anything from passion projects, and neither can you even with contracts if you're not ready to take legal action -- contracts are functionally useless unless there's the possibility of actual legal action, otherwise they're just words on a paper.

[dannthr]

Two questions:

1) You said you signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, did you sign any other documents?  They may not be illegally using your music depending on the parameters set forth within your signed contracts as well as other communications which constitute an agreement.

1a) If you did sign other documents, have they breached your agreements in any way?

2) You said you signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, are you breaching that contract by posting publicly about this project or are in any way violating that agreement?

I am not a lawyer, but if either of those questions are answered with a "yes" then you might want to cease posting about this trouble and seek legal advisement.

[Meteo Xavier]

A one-paragraph NDA was all I signed and both the developer in question and the publisher know I'm no longer involved with them. As I read it now, the NDA covers assets, wages (of which there were none, only rev. sharing) and information related to the game itself as owned by the publisher, which I have no interest in sharing with anyone.

I'm not sure if a publisher can own descriptions of behind-the-scenes drama, and even if they could, how long does an NDA last? I'm not working on it anymore, I'm not credited on it and I'm not receiving any money out of it. My silence has essentially been returned to customer service and put back on the shelf. I've seen composers and other artists blow the whistle on behind the scenes drama without getting sued and I'm pretty sure they signed NDAs.

For me, I had one major condition that had to be agreed upon for me to work - the lower I expect to be paid, the more creative freedom I get to accomplish my job on time, which I received agreement upon in writing. Not only could I not do my music job because I was told to wait on how the story is written (which is why I opted to do that in the first place) while the other composer seemed to be doing the entire friggin' score himself, but the major drafts I had done for them were rejected BY THE SAME PERSON WHO APPROVED THEM.

 

[dannthr]

Then you take Nabeel's advice and move on.  Save the kvetching for MAGFest, GDC, or other networking events.  It doesn't sound like they're any thing impressive from your description and probably not even a formalized company.

Feel free to threaten them with legal action if they use any of your work, but have teeth when you attack, not just bark.

I had a problem with an indie dev once when he and I had been sort of off-and-on working on this project of his since 2007--he was really slow moving--so I gave him time when he asked for it.  Then time went on and he decided to do a Kickstarter, I crunched a bit for his trailer, fixed a lot of his mistakes, etc. and let him handle the Kickstarter after launch.  He didn't get funding, of course, because he was terrible at marketing and he went quiet after that.  Some time later I find out that he's working on the project with some other composer with no explanation at all.

I eviscerated him in an email while simultaneously warning the incoming composer that the project floundered because of the main dev sitting on his ass most of the time not knowing what he's doing--my language was strong enough to scare him from using any of my assets and all the online promotional stuff with my music and sound was taken down within a day or so.  I'm happy to burn that bridge, that guy was an ass to pull the crap he pulled and then I move on.  If my stuff shows up on the project, you can be sure I'll send a C&D.

But unless you're willing to take legal action, there is NO RECOURSE.  The Internet is too much of an infinite void of rage and complaints, you just become part of the noise.

Complaining does nothing.

Sharpen your teeth and get serious or move on and accept that there will be people out there that will roll over the easy.

[Kanthos]

Maybe I'm missing something, Meteo, but where did you formally agree with them that all assets you produced were your IP, to be used at your discretion, and that you retained full control over your work? Do you actually have something in writing saying this? Or, do they have something in writing saying that all IP produced for the project is retained by the project and can be used as the project team sees fit? Or do you have nothing at all?

It seems to me that in the absence of a written agreement saying otherwise, you breaking ties with them doesn't mean that they have to stop using music that you produced specifically for the project, even if you request that they do.

 

Breaking a 'contract' (again, what did you have in writing besides an NDA, which, unless it was more than a standard NDA, would only be related to you revealing their IP to the outside world) doesn't automatically imply they have to stop using your work. If I were to leave my job, my employer isn't required to delete all the code I've contributed to the codebase; is your situation different, and why?

 

If you have a good, previously-agreed-upon, reason to be sure they have no legal right to use your title theme, you could go after them legally, or not, but you're not going to gain much by going out of your way to slam them other than tarnishing your reputation as well as theirs. I know I wouldn't take a stranger's account of 'they phased me out and wasted my time' as 100% true without strong evidence to back it up; if I was hiring and someone complained in the interview or on the Internet about a previous employer, that would be an immediate red flag and they'd have to have seriously impressive skills, and be able to adequately explain why they complained publicly, in order for me to want to hire them.

And if you don't have a strong reason to go after them legally, you have even less to gain by complaining.

 

I'd say that if you want to vent anonymously in public, without naming yourself OR the company or giving any details that could really tie them to you, then do so (or, perhaps this thread is all the venting you need). But I think you stand to lose more than you stand to gain by taking things public.

[Nabeel Ansari]

18 hours ago, Meteo Xavier said:

I'm not sure if a publisher can own descriptions of behind-the-scenes drama, and even if they could, how long does an NDA last?

Disclaimer: Do not interpret this following post as legal advice on how to interpret your contract.

That being said, every proper WFH contract that I've seen has had a termination clause(s) that detail how to prematurely terminate the agreement. What goes to who, time windows, etc. Without it, things get very sticky if someone tries to simply leave. If you're not going to let this go, you need to seek legal aid. You not having a case against someone could very easily translate to them having a case against you, and you never want that.

EDIT: I just read you said all you signed was a one-paragraph NDA. Unless that one paragraph had USA Declaration of Independence level sentence structure, it doesn't seem like there's any security of your rights.

1. It seems the paragraph didn't have a termination clause. I would seek legal advice to inquire about whether this contract is still in effect. If it is, you're in a really tough spot if you try to make noise or take action. If it's still in effect, then you getting mad about them posting your music and crediting you is actually a bit unreasonable (this is a strong reason to move on and forget about it before it backfires). Unless you also had writing detailing that they couldn't post it without your express approval.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I know I'm late to this party and ditto what everyone else said

but the best way to discredit them is to move on and let this be a cautionary tale. I hate to be "that guy" in the thread, but the only reason I'm being that guy is because I've been in this type of situation in the past. So I'm saying this in a completely friendly, yet blunt tone -

You've expressed your disdain for composers chastising indie composers for working for free or close to it in the past and outright said that you feel it's a conspiracy to keep newcomers from getting the work. As you're experiencing here, that is simply not true. It's because credible developers with professional integrity don't ask contractors or anyone else to work for nothing, next to nothing or "revenue sharing" and get them to sign (as far as we are aware) poorly written, vague, "NDAs" that they pass off as legal binding documents when, I'm willing to bet an undisclosed sum of money on it, there is no address or contact info of the law office that should have created it to be found anywhere on the page.

You are understandably upset because you feel that you have been unfairly compensated for your work - if you didn't, you wouldn't be looking for a way to publicly discredit the devs without having to spend money on legal fees that would no doubt exceed what you earned for your work. The simplest way to avoid this in the future and simultaneously discredit the people making a dreamcast game nigh 20 years after the system's demise that likely no one would buy anyway, is to move on and only take on projects that you feel pay you what you're worth. Because that way, even if the deal goes sour and you quit at some point but they're still using your music - which is a standard, assumed part of the deal by most composers, you can at least leave satisfied with work you did and what you got out of it.

[Meteo Xavier]

Sorry for the delay, had to deal with a not-minor case of food poisoning yesterday while being snowed the fuck in. Almost had to call an ambulance. Pretty stressful stuff that sucked out any interest I had for this business item.

I'll revisit this topic later when it comes back up in the priority chain. I expect I won't be interested in a lawsuit or just letting it go by that time either.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I'm sorry to say there's no reasonable professional on OCR who would give you advice for what it is you want (which you maintain is neither legal action nor letting it go, the only two options that are productive), because what it is you want is inherently unprofessional and a waste of your own time and effort. It'd be sending you on a wild goose chase, and no one wants to do that.

It really just seems you like need help separating your business life from your personal feelings, because the latter is largely what is fueling your question right now. I am NOT asking this rhetorically: Have you tried counseling?