the Silicon Valley smells like the inside of a bag of Smoky Bacon Crisps"

 That was pretty much how the second half of last week went, up into the weekend.  Naturally, combined with the fog, my sinuses let me know how much they loved this situation.  The surprising thing is that I managed to go without a migraine up until last night.

Other than that, i managed to pretty much avoid three conventions at once, a new first for me.  Instead, I visited with some friends  ate conventions, gardened, and went to a late barbecue.  The highlight might be my santa Maria seasoning finally being ready for prime time.  Summer grilling, I am ready for you.

The gardening is something else though: we're starting to call the balcony "the back 40"...as in 40 square feet.  We've got planters of herbs and peppers, tomatoes, hanging baskets, over-the-railing planters of herbs...I'm thinking of putting in some wheat next.  We'll be all set for when the zombie apocalypse happens.

Warning: Tokyo Pop Really likes to Screw over Creators.

I don't know if anyone reading this journal is considering doing work for TokyoPop, or might in the future be asked to do work for them, or hell, if they even buy stuff from Tokyopop.  In any case, this is something to know.

TokyoPop is calling for pilot submissions for their new Shining Stars program, where submissions are supposedly voted upon by the readers.  Sounds neat right?

Well, according to radiomaru, the contract is a complete work of sleaze. 

I honestly thought radiomaru was exaggerating, that the contract i=couldn't be that bad.  But actually?  It is.  If you look past the oh-so-carefully written "casual" language, you find out that Tokyopop gets the following:

• No legal liability in case of lawsuits from say, accusations of copyright infringement.
• All rights to distribution, adaptation, etc..  They receive all profits from those, .
• They can alter your material as they please.
• you lose the right to actually get credit for your work.

In return, the artist gets...the chance to be credited as creator.  Maybe.  Unless of course Tokyopop decides not to give that credit.

In other words, this is a blatant "Give us everything, and we'll give you jack shit" contract.  it's one of the most cynical rights grabs I've ever seen, and I've seen some nasty work for hire contracts.  It's obviously designed to prey on naive artists who've never been published.

Don't believe me?   Read the contract yourself.

I have faith that my friends are too experienced to fall for this crap, but if you know any artists, if you know anyone who knows artists, show this to them.  That way, if they decide to work with Tokyopop, they'll be going in with eyes wide open.