should I accept webnovel's contract?

[KiraMinoru]

Webnovel ToS only prevents you from the disclosure of settlement amounts from arbitration. It doesn't have blanket NDA

Ownership; Proprietary Rights. The Service is owned and operated by Webnovel. The visual interfaces, graphics, design, compilation, information, data, computer code (including source code or object code), products, software, services, and all other elements of the Service (“Materials”) provided by Webnovel are protected by intellectual property and other laws. All Materials included in the Service are the property of Webnovel or our third-party licensors. Except as expressly authorized by Webnovel, you may not make use of the Materials. Webnovel reserves all rights to the Materials not granted expressly in these Terms.

Contracts offered through the internal inkstone author portal can be considered “Materials.” If you posted it elsewhere they could technically come after you for it. Though I honestly doubt that they would, it acts as a good enough deterrent as long as people think the possibility exists.

As to whether that holds up in a court of law I doubt it, but they could still burn a hole in your pocket financially by doing so. Honestly enforcement of it would be a pain and they likely wouldn’t bother.

 

[Snusmumriken]

Ownership; Proprietary Rights. The Service is owned and operated by Webnovel. The visual interfaces, graphics, design, compilation, information, data, computer code (including source code or object code), products, software, services, and all other elements of the Service (“Materials”) provided by Webnovel are protected by intellectual property and other laws. All Materials included in the Service are the property of Webnovel or our third-party licensors. Except as expressly authorized by Webnovel, you may not make use of the Materials. Webnovel reserves all rights to the Materials not granted expressly in these Terms.

Contracts offered through the internal inkstone author portal can be considered “Materials.” If you posted it elsewhere they could technically come after you for it. Though I honestly doubt that they would, it acts as a good enough deterrent as long as people think the possibility exists.

As to whether that holds up in a court of law I doubt it, but they could still burn a hole in your pocket financially by doing so. Honestly enforcement of it would be a pain and they likely wouldn’t bother.

Yes. This is why you are not allowed to use their contract as a replacement for your own if you needed to contract someone else. Or claim the contract as your own work.

 

[vish]

Thanks to all of you for the answers to my doubts and sorry to people whom I bothered with this thread.
I did some research of my own and asked some friends about it too and it seems that the webnovel contract is really isn't that beneficial for a guy like me who writes one chap a week and doesn't want to lose all right of my creation. So, I will not be signing the contract. :)

 

[Poleg]

Usually as a rule, companies online that use content creators have poor terms for contracts. Remember Machinma?

Jesus, I feel so old. Wish I could go back to those times.

 

[DreamOfRen]

Bit late, but I will add to this. When I said it was illegal, I meant it's actually in the contract that you can't share the certain things once you sign it.
That effectively means, once you sign you then can't tell anyone how terrible the deal is.

 

[Snusmumriken]

Bit late, but I will add to this. When I said it was illegal, I meant it's actually in the contract that you can't share the certain things once you sign it.
That effectively means, once you sign you then can't tell anyone how terrible the deal is.

I was talking before signature. It doesn't really matter if you signed the contract already since the choice was made.

 

[TroubleFait]

There are countries where forbidding employees from talking about their pay I'd illegal.
Also, I really suspect so long as you don't sign any NDA, nobody can prevent you from sharing the terms of a contract.
So long as you're not Chinese you should be good then?
As they said, you don't claim you invented the contract.