Does Andrzej Sapkowski really deserve $16 Million?

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Photo courtesy of CD Projekt Red

I’m here to talk about CD Projekt Red again! I promise this isn’t a CD Projekt Red fan-blog, but after I saw this story I wanted to dissect it.

I’ll link Digital Spy’s story here, but the short version is that author of The Witcher novels and short stories, Andrzej Sapkowski, is suing the developers of The Witcher video game series, CD Projekt Red, for royalties. Sapkowski was offered a chance to earn royalties on franchise sales a little over a decade ago, but opted instead for a one-time payment of roughly $9.4k. Sapkowski told Eurogamer “They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, ‘No, there will be no profit at all – give me all my money right now! The whole amount.’ It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in their hands because I didn’t believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? I couldn’t.”

The lawsuit is, of course, taking place in Poland where both parties reside. There is a legal basis for the suit, Article 44 of Poland’s Act on Copyright and Related Rights states that in the event of gross discrepancy between an author and a licensee’s profits, the author is owed remuneration. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an expert on Polish law, so I don’t know whether or not the case will go to trial.

What I do know is that Sapkowski was given the opportunity to receive royalties, and denied it for a lump sum of cash. Sapkowski didn’t seem to mind this deal until now, roughly 2.5 years after the release of the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and roughly 11 years since the release of the first game. Sapkowski, by his own admission, was not conned or swindled into this contract, and actually proposed it himself because he didn’t believe the video game would be successful.

Is Sapkowski entitled to $16 million? I’m not sure how the court will react to his previous statements, but the lawsuit seems like an antagonistic move solely motivated by money. I find it hard to believe the games didn’t have any impact on book sales, or that the success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt didn’t have anything to do with the upcoming Netflix series.

What do you think? Does Sapkowski have a case? Should CD Projekt Red try to settle with him?

 

Punk Band Performs Powerful Ballads at Porchfest

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From left, sophomore Dan Rogers, senior Jacob Sullivan, sophomore Andrew Lackland (drums), senior Alex Fedele, Zach Randall and sophomore Chris Anderson

Power chords and husky vocals filled the air as Jake and The Nowhere Men, a band composed of Ithaca College students, performed on Sept. 23 during Ithaca’s 12th annual Porchfest.

Senior Jacob Sullivan is the founder of the alt-rock band, for which he also sings and plays guitar.

Sullivan said he has been interested in being a musician from a young age, due to inspiration from his mother.

“She wasn’t a musician, but she really got me into cool music,” Sullivan said. “I picked up a guitar in eighth grade and I began writing songs.”

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Jacob Sullivan is the frontman for Jake and the Nowhere Men. Sullivan has been playing guitar since eighth grade. He has started his own record label, Ded Sullivan Productions.

The band played on Second Street, and drew a crowd of approximately 60 people over the course of its entire set. Several people sang along with a few of the songs, such as “Your Parents are Getting a Divorce” and “Beach Bum.”

Sullivan had previously founded a band in high school called Fetal Smudge, but the band broke up after his class graduated. He wanted to form a new band when he came to Ithaca College. His first opportunity arose in the spring 2016 semester, his freshman year, when he was invited to play on ICTV’s After Hours along with then sophomores Matthew Porter and Katy Trosch.

The group has gone on to play several other gigs at various venues.

“We’ve played at house parties, a warehouse in Syracuse, we’ve played in Whalen at a bunch of benefit shows I put on, we’ve played in New Jersey … in bars, kind of all around.”

Sullivan, along with Porter, Trosch and Hale Douthit started a record label called Ded Sullivan Productions, which will be promoting and releasing the band’s music.

“We try releasing our own music, giving it releases, nice video, nice media … we’re trying to really build the brand and get our music out there.”

Jake and The Nowhere Men made approximately $50 off of the release of their newest EP, “Going Nowhere,” which was on sale after their performance. The albums were created by burning the music onto blank CDs.

Senior Ben Brown-McMillin, a fan of the band, said he sees them play whenever he gets the opportunity.

“I heard about this through Facebook, and decided to come out,” Brown-McMillin said. “They sounded really good. Every time I see them there’s something a little different going on, and I think it’s pretty cool.”

The members of Jake and The Nowhere Men exist in a state of flux, according to Sullivan, and the band members at Porchfest had never performed together before. This was sophomore Chris Anderson’s first gig with Jake and The Nowhere Men. Sullivan and Anderson met through their work with IC Macabre, a theater group, and Sullivan invited Anderson to play keyboard with the group at Porchfest.

“I thought the set went really well,” Anderson said. “It was a lot of fun, and I hope that we get to play more together.”

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Sophomore Chris Anderson played his first show with Jake and the Nowhere Men at Porchfest. He plays keyboard for the group and met Sullivan through IC Macabre. 

Sullivan said he plans to keep playing after college if he can.

“I’ll probably try pursuing a real job, as my parents would call it, but the music will always be here in some way.”

Check out my video coverage here 

Welcome

Full disclosure, I’m starting this blog for my Mobile and Social Media Journalism class. My first assignment is to post about our readings and the state of journalism, so here we are.

With the advent of social media and mobile devices, journalism has changed and will never be the same. While you may agree or disagree with the statement that anyone can be a journalist, the truth is that professional journalists will never be able to take the same approach as the journalists who came before them.

The positives of this change are that journalists can talk to their audience in real time, and that content can be driven by readers, rather than what an editor thinks is important. It’s never been easier to crowdsource, and it’s never been easier for a journalist to gather photos or videos from breaking events that they happened to not personally be at. The Miracle on the Hudson was one of the first examples of a story breaking on twitter from a non-journalist.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the internet’s ability to allow users to quickly publish anything they want, factual or not. We’ve all heard of fake news, which in this case I’ll define as stories that are deliberately fabricated as an effort to troll or push an agenda. You can read a story here from New York Magazine about a twitter troll that spread false information during Hurrican Sandy.

As a journalist, fake news can always be combated by verifying the facts before reporting. Journalists should make it a priority to be right instead of to be first. Overall, the rise of social media and mobile devices has made it an incredibly exciting time to be a journalist, despite what others might tell you.