Yep, I was reading all of this. So it's my turn to dive in Ok, the issues I saw were as follows
- A bit of confusion about tools and compensation
- Permission to sale on their own sites
- sharing shelf space
- Cheaper prices compared to Reallusion Content Store
- What changed?!
Confusion
As stated in the contract:
DEVELOPERS submit their ready-for-market content to Reallusion and if the ready-for-market content is indeed certified as a Reallusion content add-on pack then DEVELOPERS content will be posted for sale for a commission of 50% of net sales of content.
Commission has nothing to do with the tools you use. Our tools exist to help you develop using outside resources and tools such as 3DS Max, Sketchup, Photoshop, crayons and/or finger painting... anything that you use for development. The commission is profit-sharing, not a license fee nor a penalty for using our tools. If you wish to access our market place with access to approximately 800,000+ customers spanning education, animation, video producers, across many, many countries on this planet (though we have considered doing business with Martians :alien, then you must profit-share with Reallusion.
In fact, this not a new concept. The only change that occured here from the "old" agreement to the new "agreement" is the word net sales, ready-for-market, and the stipulation of forfeit 20% of compensation if Reallusion is requested to make marketing materials for artist instead of generated by artist.
Permission
Lot's of clarification needed her. And this is eactly why we have this forum thread.
Having our permission is not a content by content request. But say for instance, as with case with two of the most familiar sites, CoolCreators and Clone2Go, White Tiger online stores. We ask that you have Reallusion's approval simply because we are trying to protect customers. I guess the best way is to explain, is with an example:
Evil-Store, who does not have Reallusion's permission. Creates content using our tools, and then says, "This is the greatest pack ever- the Clonebot Kcaz, it's totally awesome!" So, we unwittingly buy this pack, turns out we just installed the Trojan-Worm-Great-Balls-of-Fire-Death-Virus, which renders our wonderful super-duper desk top computer with that new-state of the art-super awesome 5 million GHrz Video Card into a mere oversized paper weight... <Gasp in Horror >
Clones2Go, White Tiger and CoolCreators do not pander such things. They offer content, and therefore, we say kudos to you, sirs and ma'ams. Those storefronts are not guranteed by Reallusion, but guaranteed by those said parties, but we know they are not trying to trick you into downloading malicious materials. However, as for quality, pricing standards, and other legal etc. etc. We do hold those storefronts accountable for the actions of their members. But, we never had any problem, and we really appreciate Clones2Go, White Tiger and CoolCreators and all of their efforts in promoting iClone, CrazyTalk and all other Reallusion products, they are our biggest fans, and we are their biggest fans!
You don't need to ask for permission for every content you create, but if you wish to sell it, then let us know, so we know you are not abusing our tools to create a Take-Over-The-World-Super-Virus. But if you wish to sell on the Clones2Go, CoolCreators, Amazon.com, Clonebot Zack's Awesome Store (I made that last one up...)
Then go for it! It's your content, your creation, do with it as you like. CoolCreators and Clones2Go has to be responsible to make sure their members selling content on their store are not doing anything bad, and check the quality, guarantee no viruses, or etc etc.
If you are selling content on a store not mentioned here, send me an email.
developer@reallusion.com
Sharing Shelf Space
What do you mean, your shelf isn't big enough?! Just kidding, we do share ours, its called Certified Content Developers.
Every member of CCD is viewed as their own company in our eyes. In fact, we promote that with the Commercialization Guide, be your own business. The reason is.... drum roll please...
If you have not noticed yet, the content store and developer center is slowly, but surely, changing. We are moving to a more open market for the content store. What does that mean? Well in a nutshell, it means the following (but of course not limited to the following):
CCD member can have these powers on the new content store (of the future):
- Customer Base control
- Subscriptions to their content and shelf space
- information channels to communicate your content
- updated information on market behavior
- managing your business opportunities
- access to multiple markets and storefronts
- allow comments and ratings of their goods
- email lists of their customers to share updates and new releases
- and more...
But to get from where we are now to where we want to go, takes a little change... Royalty-Free is the first, but crucial change. "Pardon our Dust"
Price discrepancy?!
I hope not! If you are selling packs at a cheaper price that what you have placed on Reallusion store, then you have committed a big "No-No", or what it's called in the legal world, arbitrage. With the agreement of permission from Reallusion to Developer, packs created to be sold on Reallusion, cannot be sold as is on their own, or other's store front for cheaper. Let's take a look at another example to clarify this point.
Clonebot Zack creates a pack of 5 clonebots, calls it 5-Bots, and places it on the Reallusion online store for $10 (in theory, $2 per robot character). If Zack then turns around and sells 5-Bots on a 3rd party site for $8
or even for $10, then Zack has broken the developer agreement. If Zack broke the pack apart, and sold each robot individually, for $2 or less, Zack would have broken the agreement. If Zack sells the individual robots for $2.01, then Zack hs not broken the agreement, but Zack is playing with fire...
The moral of the story is, if you have content placed on the Reallusion content store, you cannot sell that exact pack for less or equal price on another site (You can't even change the name to Five-Bots and get away with it). You can sell invidual items of a pack, but not at a price less than the unit price of that content on Reallusion store front.
No storefront, as I am aware of, is doing this... if you are, please stop... nobody likes criminals and pirates. Well, Pirates of the Carribean were cool...
What Changed?!
The reality is, all the aforementioned concerns were also included in the "old" contract. Permission was required, arbitrage was bad, shelf space, and profit sharing was 50%. So... what changed?
Let me outline it below:
- Royalty Free- before Developers had a choice, "to be or not to be" Royalty Free, now, the choice is, if you want to be part of our store, then you must be royalty free.
- Ready-for-market- you have to have marketing materials of a high standard outlined in the Commericialization Guide
- 50% of net sales (it was always this way, but now we clearly state it)
- 20% forfeit of profit if we do the marketing for you (it was always this way, but now we clearly state it)
So I hope that clears up a few matters. But keep the good questions and concerns and what ever else you got coming. It's Monday, "I'll be here all week!"
Reallusion CloneBot
Helping you to develop, for everyone's benefit
Edited
15 Years Ago by
CloneBot Zack