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Buyer publishes truncated/modified version of your delivery - what can be done?


absynthemoon

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Hi all,

I am doing lyric videos here on Fiverr. Pretty good at it if I am permitted. However, it’s not the first time
a client published my work/delivery but not in its original state. I remember one of them added his name and other credits over a video (as creator) and modified some colors, another one only kept the non-lyrical parts and now, this new client took most of my video, cut the parts that he didn’t liked (after he was happy with it) and replaced them with other parts someone else created.

Is there something like a clause that can be enforced or something else that can be done? Or we just sit calmly and that’s it? Yes, we got paid for that, but how about the moral side of things? Or the creator’s authoring/creation rights. Does this counts?
How can I add “that” to my portfolio since either is not entirely my work anymore or since I can’t be proud with it anymore?

Sorry if this got discussed previously, don’t have too much time to comb the forums.
Cheers.

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Once the order is delivered and paid for, clients can do whatever they want with it, unless stated otherwise in the gig description.

I’m not sure how it’s possible to alter what appears in your live portfolio on Fiverr, though; doesn’t it show the work you delivered?

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Guys, it’s not normal to upload myself even for portfolio purposes the client’s delivery on MY account somewhere. It is against copyright rules and good practices. No matter if you name it director’s cut etc, your upload for portfolio purposes still needs to be approved by the client, and they usually don’t. Nobody (as an artist) wants to have a double on youtube, for example, that isn’t actually his official product ffs.

So, NO, I can’t just upload my version.
Other ideas, pls?

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Guys, it’s not normal to upload myself even for portfolio purposes the client’s delivery on MY account somewhere. It is against copyright rules and good practices. No matter if you name it director’s cut etc, your upload for portfolio purposes still needs to be approved by the client, and they usually don’t. Nobody (as an artist) wants to have a double on youtube, for example, that isn’t actually his official product ffs.

So, NO, I can’t just upload my version.

Other ideas, pls?

It seems you give commercial and broadcast use to the buyer (since you don’t charge for it). Because of that, you have no more rights to the work, I’m pretty sure. Honestly, they’re allowed to change whatever they want about work they bought. It’s theirs. There’s no policy against that.

If I sell someone a story, and they cut out a scene before publishing it, that’s totally within their rights since they bought the story. It’s not as if you own the song, and the rights of the video are transferred to the buyer after the delivery unless stated before the order is placed.

Don’t be upset. You got your money, and they got their video. What happens after this isn’t your concern.

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It seems you give commercial and broadcast use to the buyer (since you don’t charge for it). Because of that, you have no more rights to the work, I’m pretty sure. Honestly, they’re allowed to change whatever they want about work they bought. It’s theirs. There’s no policy against that.

If I sell someone a story, and they cut out a scene before publishing it, that’s totally within their rights since they bought the story. It’s not as if you own the song, and the rights of the video are transferred to the buyer after the delivery unless stated before the order is placed.

Don’t be upset. You got your money, and they got their video. What happens after this isn’t your concern.

It’s not always about the money. Maybe I liked the video I did for them and I would want it in my portfolio to get more work. No I can;t just because some clients are *******.

Ans honestly, when I see your passiveness regarding our creator’s rights it drops my faith in humanity once again.

Mod Note: inappropriate words edited.

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Guys, it’s not normal to upload myself even for portfolio purposes the client’s delivery on MY account somewhere. It is against copyright rules and good practices. No matter if you name it director’s cut etc, your upload for portfolio purposes still needs to be approved by the client, and they usually don’t. Nobody (as an artist) wants to have a double on youtube, for example, that isn’t actually his official product ffs.

So, NO, I can’t just upload my version.

Other ideas, pls?

So, NO, I can’t just upload my version.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough. I’m not talking about YouTube or any place other than Fiverr’s Live Portfolio. When you deliver via Deliver Now button, and if the buyer allows it, your delivery shows up in your Live Portfolio on Fiverr, and it shows exactly as you’ve delivered it to the buyer. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Or is the buyer now somehow able to alter your delivery that goes into Fiverr Live Portfolio?

Or are you talking about your portfolio elsewhere, not on Fiverr?

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It’s not always about the money. Maybe I liked the video I did for them and I would want it in my portfolio to get more work. No I can;t just because some clients are *******.

Ans honestly, when I see your passiveness regarding our creator’s rights it drops my faith in humanity once again.

Mod Note: inappropriate words edited.

“Your faith in humanity[…]” Gosh. Get over yourself. You don’t have a right to work you sell to someone else. If you want your work to say “yours” don’t sell it. It’s not a passivity. It’s pragmatism.

I’m a ghostwriter, yes. When I sell my work, I sell all rights as well. Such is why I never sell anything I’d want to use myself. I keep my own stories separate from that which I write for my buyers. If I even write a sentence that I think is good, I honestly might take it out if I don’t want my buyer to have it (because I understand that they can do whatever they want with work they legally own).

Don’t try to attack the morality of someone who deigns to let their buyers have the work they sold them. If you honestly think that the buyer doesn’t have the right to edit the work they bought, you shouldn’t be selling on Fiverr. You’re just going to throw a fit whenever someone decides to revise the tiniest things. You should be happy the buyer didn’t just leave a bad review stating something along the lines of the work not being just right.

Buyers have the rights after delivery, not the seller.

Bottom Line: If you don’t want the buyer to have your work to do whatever they want with it, don’t sell it.

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“Your faith in humanity[…]” Gosh. Get over yourself. You don’t have a right to work you sell to someone else. If you want your work to say “yours” don’t sell it. It’s not a passivity. It’s pragmatism.

I’m a ghostwriter, yes. When I sell my work, I sell all rights as well. Such is why I never sell anything I’d want to use myself. I keep my own stories separate from that which I write for my buyers. If I even write a sentence that I think is good, I honestly might take it out if I don’t want my buyer to have it (because I understand that they can do whatever they want with work they legally own).

Don’t try to attack the morality of someone who deigns to let their buyers have the work they sold them. If you honestly think that the buyer doesn’t have the right to edit the work they bought, you shouldn’t be selling on Fiverr. You’re just going to throw a fit whenever someone decides to revise the tiniest things. You should be happy the buyer didn’t just leave a bad review stating something along the lines of the work not being just right.

Buyers have the rights after delivery, not the seller.

Bottom Line: If you don’t want the buyer to have your work to do whatever they want with it, don’t sell it.

I’m in total agreement, @graphtersawyer. As a writer, I see clients doing absolutely cringeworthy stuff with my creations after I fork them over and get my money, but hey - if they want to put ketchup on the filet mignon I made for them, there’s no accounting for taste. 🙂

@absynthemoon, this is unfortunately the nature of freelancing man. I totally understand feeling protective of the videos that you’ve worked so hard on, but I’m a little surprised that someone with as much experience as you has never run into this before. 55 Fiverr orders and MTV work in your portfolio and you’ve never run afoul of an editor or an artist that had “creative differences”? This happens very frequently in creative circles - if you want more creative control after the fact (or at least want to be compensated for the after-sale mangling) do as others have suggested and build in rights as an add-on to your gig.

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You can add a clause to your gig terms that for quality control reasons, you don’t allow your work to be modified and the approved version is to be the final version of the product that there is.

Then, when the order is placed, you can message the person and bring that to their attention as a friendly reminder. It’s not binding in any way but I’m guessing it may take care of your problem at least in part. Clients can be open and respectful to one’s artistic integrity.

Unless you get yourself a legal department and direct contracts, there is no 100% effective solution to this.

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If the client pays for it, it’s their work and they can do whatever they want to it. If a photographer is hired to shoot photos, those photos can be retouched and color corrected however they see fit. If a videographer films content, that content can be edited, composed and color corrected however they want. That’s part of the industry.

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You know what is even worse than a client ■■■■■■■ up your work? Your saltiness and aggressiveness of some of my fellow creators. Like we are not on the same boat. Like we are not prone to defend our rights. Like if we create something for the money we are not entitled anymore to respect.

@graphtersawyer you seem a little unhappy with life from your comment. If your life is about just making money selling your writings then maybe you deserve remaining a ghostwriter. So little self-esteem. So, if I am asking opinions in what can be done, yet your comment is as salty as the Dead Sea like I broke some rule or else. If you not care about your works but maybe some others do, at least

forbid yourself the right to express yourself by commenting crap.

And yes, what is wrong with building an outside portfolio, is this against the rules, or something? I need to draw as much work as I can. And if a well made outside portfolio can help, I don’t see why not. As far as I know I didn’t signed for exclusivity with Fiver, didn’t I? Plus, on my outside portfolio have the Fiver link to my gig anyway. I try to keep my Live Portfolio tidy and concise to what I want to transmit.

There is no need to be so condescending to people, honestly.

And please don’t curse. It’ll get this post closed and it’d be great for it to remain up as it’s an interesting topic to bring up and discuss.

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You know what is even worse than a client ■■■■■■■ up your work? Your saltiness and aggressiveness of some of my fellow creators. Like we are not on the same boat. Like we are not prone to defend our rights. Like if we create something for the money we are not entitled anymore to respect.

@graphtersawyer you seem a little unhappy with life from your comment. If your life is about just making money selling your writings then maybe you deserve remaining a ghostwriter. So little self-esteem. So, if I am asking opinions in what can be done, yet your comment is as salty as the Dead Sea like I broke some rule or else. If you not care about your works but maybe some others do, at least

forbid yourself the right to express yourself by commenting crap.

And yes, what is wrong with building an outside portfolio, is this against the rules, or something? I need to draw as much work as I can. And if a well made outside portfolio can help, I don’t see why not. As far as I know I didn’t signed for exclusivity with Fiver, didn’t I? Plus, on my outside portfolio have the Fiver link to my gig anyway. I try to keep my Live Portfolio tidy and concise to what I want to transmit.

Do as Lenasemenkova said and prepare for the future rather than stewing on a past that you built for yourself.

And stop flinging ad hominem attacks because you don’t want to come to terms with the fact that you sold the rights to your work with your work.

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You know what is even worse than a client ■■■■■■■ up your work? Your saltiness and aggressiveness of some of my fellow creators. Like we are not on the same boat. Like we are not prone to defend our rights. Like if we create something for the money we are not entitled anymore to respect.

@graphtersawyer you seem a little unhappy with life from your comment. If your life is about just making money selling your writings then maybe you deserve remaining a ghostwriter. So little self-esteem. So, if I am asking opinions in what can be done, yet your comment is as salty as the Dead Sea like I broke some rule or else. If you not care about your works but maybe some others do, at least

forbid yourself the right to express yourself by commenting crap.

And yes, what is wrong with building an outside portfolio, is this against the rules, or something? I need to draw as much work as I can. And if a well made outside portfolio can help, I don’t see why not. As far as I know I didn’t signed for exclusivity with Fiver, didn’t I? Plus, on my outside portfolio have the Fiver link to my gig anyway. I try to keep my Live Portfolio tidy and concise to what I want to transmit.

saltiness and aggressiveness of some of my fellow creators

It is not. Just because your opinion is different and people are disagreeing with you it doesn’t mean that we are anywhere aggressive.

to defend our rights.

You signed a contract. Your clients paid money. You don’t have rights to your work anymore and it’s their right to change it as they want.

You can not eat a cake and keep a cake.

It simply doesn’t work like that. If to put it in different words as soon as your orders marked complete you don’t have rights for that work anymore. And it’s not our wish, that’s how copyright world works.

Non of us can change a copyright law.

It’s basically like saying “I want to rob a bank. Why can’t we rob a bank. Let’s fight for our rights, we all should be able to rob a bank”

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Ownership and limitations: Unless clearly stated otherwise on the Seller’s Gig page/description, when the work is delivered, and subject to payment, the Buyer is granted all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to, copyrights for the work delivered from the Seller, and the Seller waives any and all moral rights therein. The delivered work shall be considered work-for-hire under the U.S. Copyright Act. In the event the delivered work does not meet the requirements of work-for-hire or when US Copyright Act does not apply, the Seller expressly agrees to assign to Buyer the copyright in the delivered work. All transfer and assignment of intellectual property to Buyer shall be subject to full payment for the Gig and the delivery may not be used if payment is cancelled for any reason. For removal of doubt, in custom created work (such as art work, design work, report generation etc.), the delivered work shall be the exclusive property of Buyer, and Seller assigns all rights, title and interest in the delivered work.

The above is from the Terms of Service at the bottom of the Fiverr main page.

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You know what is even worse than a client ■■■■■■■ up your work? Your saltiness and aggressiveness of some of my fellow creators. Like we are not on the same boat. Like we are not prone to defend our rights. Like if we create something for the money we are not entitled anymore to respect.

@graphtersawyer you seem a little unhappy with life from your comment. If your life is about just making money selling your writings then maybe you deserve remaining a ghostwriter. So little self-esteem. So, if I am asking opinions in what can be done, yet your comment is as salty as the Dead Sea like I broke some rule or else. If you not care about your works but maybe some others do, at least

forbid yourself the right to express yourself by commenting crap.

And yes, what is wrong with building an outside portfolio, is this against the rules, or something? I need to draw as much work as I can. And if a well made outside portfolio can help, I don’t see why not. As far as I know I didn’t signed for exclusivity with Fiver, didn’t I? Plus, on my outside portfolio have the Fiver link to my gig anyway. I try to keep my Live Portfolio tidy and concise to what I want to transmit.

full of sellouts with low self esteem.

No, full of people who have spent enough time in their respective industries to know what work-for-hire means.

And yes, what is wrong with building an outside portfolio, is this against the rules, or something? I

There’s nothing wrong with it. I asked because it wasn’t clear from your post whether you were talking about Fiverr portfolio suddenly becoming buggy, or an outside portfolio.

As far as I know I didn’t signed for exclusivity with Fiver, didn’t I?

As per FIverr’s Terms of Service (which you did agree to, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to sell on Fiverr), everything you deliver belongs to the buyer to use as they wish unless explicitly stated otherwise in your gig description.

So, how about you stop being aggressive to people who are trying to help, and change your gig description?

For example, you could state in your gig description that you retain the right to use the work you deliver in your portfolio (and if the buyer doesn’t want you to do that, you can charge them for exclusivity).

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Whatever… full of sellouts with low self esteem. Au revoir.

Whatever… full of sellouts with low self esteem. Au revoir.

If you don’t want to lose rights to your work then stop selling your rights to your work…

You can’t have your cake and eat it too as they say.

I’m shaking my head trying to understand what your issue or point is here. I get that you can have some attachment of pride in your work and that’s all fine but you sell the right to bask in that with the final product.

I’m quite proud of a particular client’s search rankings after a couple of months work I did for them. I can’t share that information without the client’s permission and don’t have the right to. Perhaps you could ask your client If you can link to their video or embed THEIR video within your portfolio site.

Be careful about treading the line of not giving outside contact info though.

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It’s not always about the money. Maybe I liked the video I did for them and I would want it in my portfolio to get more work. No I can;t just because some clients are *******.

Ans honestly, when I see your passiveness regarding our creator’s rights it drops my faith in humanity once again.

Mod Note: inappropriate words edited.

I see your passiveness regarding our creator’s rights it drops my faith in humanity once again.

That’s so incredibly abusive. When you sell your work on fiverr, the terms of service say you are giving up the rights to it.

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I see your passiveness regarding our creator’s rights it drops my faith in humanity once again.

That’s so incredibly abusive. When you sell your work on fiverr, the terms of service say you are giving up the rights to it.

It’s sickening, especially on Thanksgiving.

OP isn’t an American, and could easily be completely unaware of an American holiday.

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I guess I’m just weary of the whole “well as an ARTIST…” thing. Commercial art is commercial art. There is no shame in doing it. The second you accept payment to do custom work, you are it. Congratulations.

There are general rules of doing it, and if you want to go against those, hire yourself legal representation that will put together custom agreements and contracts on your behalf that’ll include everything: how it can be used, where it can be used, how long it can be used, can it be altered, etc. The context, the placement, even the names of all the people who can access the files. It’ll be expensive but it’ll do the job.

But it’d involve a lot of reading through and a hefty amount of $. It’s much easier to get indignant and demand special treatment while insulting everybody else over one’s artistic integrity being compromised (completely in lines with the licensing terms it was sold under).

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