Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The law does prevent grossly unfair contracts from being enforcible - eg the UK has a law called the Unfair Contract Terms Act, but it's mainly limited to not allowing companies to get away with disclaiming liability for things that they are responsible for.
As a responsible adult, it's your responsibility to know what it is that you're agreeing to when you sign a contract. Any author is being a little foolish if they sign a publishing contract without having it checked out by a lawyer first, and properly understanding just what it is they're agreeing to. |
We have a minimum wage set by law because it doesn't matter how much of a responsible adult you are, in the absence of these laws with more people looking for jobs that there are jobs available companies would pay nearly nothing.
One way to give authors a chance is to have a law saying that when the publisher stops marketing the books the author gets the right to find another publisher regardless of what is in the contract.