This is Typophile. Not Veer. Contact Grant and ask him.

Very reasonable. I don’t mean to sound accusatory in this; mainly I’m curious, and certainly not interested in making enemies. I’ll ask Grant. In the meantime, now that I’ve breached the topic, if anyone else wants to sound off on it, it couldn’t hurt to know what typophiles at large think.

It would also be strange for a font to be “pulled” because of an “unreasonable contract” - once the contract is signed its a bit too late to say its unreasonable? Sure contracts get terminated due to breach or a change of heart, but unreasonableness?

>This made me concerned, because I’m working on getting my first font (Newt) sold, and I’ve gotten it pretty far down the pipeline with Veer.

“Pretty far down the pipeline” and you’ve not seen the contract?

Hi a question, Q: wont someone at Veer be reading this anyway?

They’re all at the party right now. Maybe after chucking out time.

I wrote an e-mail, but I’ve only ever gotten e-mails during business hours, so that probably won’t get to him until Monday. He may see this first, which I mentioned in the e-mail.

I have seen the contract (or rather, a preliminary draft), but this is my first time selling a font, so I don’t have any idea what a different contract might look like. It seemed reasonable to me, which is why I was wondering.

I’m not sure what the chain of events was that led to Olicana not being sold by Veer anymore. Here’s the relevant thread, with people starting to discuss it on November 4th last year.

It isn’t a good idea to discuss details of contracts – which are private agreements – in a public forum. Just because it has been done already doesn’t make it any better.

If I was Veer I would be slightly concerned... I too think you may want to be a bit more discreet. stop here.

>I have seen the contract (or rather, a preliminary draft), but this is my first time selling a font, so I don’t have any idea what a different contract might look like.

I believe investing in a few hours consult with an IP lawyer would be a good move.

Oh, and did you sign an “NDA” (an NDA is a non-disclosure agreement) with Veer before they sent the contract?

Cheers, Si

No, I never signed an NDA. I thought it would be okay to talk about Veer’s terms in general, not my specific contract, but you all are probably right. I’ll keep this between me and Grant, I suppose, unless anyone would like to private-message me.

Also, I apologize to anyone who might need an apology for my faux pas in bringing up the contract.

I wish I’d never mentioned it now. The problem concerned only a few points in the contract. I was pretty annoyed at the time, and maybe posted too hastily, but the situation may yet have a solution. I have great respect for Veer - their marketing is fantastic, and I was proud to be associated with them.

Please, no more discussion on this subject.

BTW, what was the ad?

Nick Cooke

It was in one of those neighborhood circulars that get mailed to “Current Resident”, this one in the Cincinnati area. I think it was for pools, but I don’t have it right now. I remember thinking, “Wow, if that’s Olicana, it’s gotten a whole lot of market penetration in a very short time.” And it was, so it has. I congratulate you—within one year, your font made it into a place where I’d expect most people to just use system fonts.

I’m probably over 99% sure I’ll still market with Veer, so now this has been graded down to just being kind of curious, mixed with not worrying about it. Whenever I hear back about it, that’ll probably satisfy me.

Cheers!
P.S. If I find the ad again, I’ll post here what the company’s name is.

Nathanael, I have sent you a reply via email.

I would have been quicker to respond, but I’ve been returning and decompressing from TypeCon for the past day or so.

Nick, thank you for your input … no need to apologize. I just wish the contractual situation could have been resolved months ago … unfortunately, it was beyond the control of my particular sphere of influence. I still anticipate a resolution, and the return of G-Type to Veer.

Hello Nathanael,

I think you have to rename your typeface Newt because there is already a typeface with the same name:
http://www.garagefonts.com

Pieter

Thanks Grant. I’d rather be with Veer than Fonts101:

http://www.fonts101.com/forums.asp?tt=forumreply&TopicID=633&ForumID=1

Nick Cooke

Nick, that must hurt to read such a topic. And there’s even a name of a forum member on that list.

Nick, that thread is one of the most repulsive and distressing things I have seen in a while. I’m so sorry that this has happened to you and other designers.

That really sucks. They don’t even care about posting their addresses. Such blatant thieves! :-(

ChrisL

Nick, contact them. Let them know you do not allow free sharing. I think they are trying to stay on the right side of that, but they won’t know unless you contact them.

Ouch. That thread makes me really sad.
Yes, I’d say Veer is quite the good bet, especially if that’s the alternative. I’m not worried about Veer at all. Thanks, everyone.

Nick,
Sorry to see that fonts 101 business. When my font Chai Tea first came out I saw similar things happening, but not on a free font site. There are lots of sites about where people blatantly give out intellectual properties such as fonts. The person giving my font away was acting as though we were romantically involved and I wanted to spread the wealth. Such thievery is tragically rampant.

Veer, by the way, has been great for me. My deal is exclusive and thus uncomplicated. They are very good at marketing and since I’m not, it works like a charm.

Stephen

Wow. Crazy blatant piracy!

I have contacted them - to no avail, it’s still there.

Nick Cooke

Nick, maybe you could ad a comment right there and tell them what is what. Sorry for you sir.

At least I’ve worried some people. I sent all those who requested the font a personal email telling them they’re using stolen property.

But some others have actually gone and bought a license.

Nick Cooke

Good for you, Nick. I see someone posted a copy of your cease-and-desist on the thread, too.

I posted that Ricardo.

Anyway, it just took them a couple of days to reply to me and they have now removed that thread, for which I am very grateful.

Nick Cooke

Hurrah, I’m so glad that site is specifically trying to stay away from sharing retail fonts. There are some sites that really encourage massive piracy, but apparently this is a pretty honest group.

I know we’d all be glad to recommend that people purchase Olicana, where can we send them now?

Thanks Carl. Still only at: Fontworks UK for the time being. Maybe other places too soon.

Nick Cooke

Now you people got me curious about that piracy forum. It seems they have quickly deleted the thread or something, since the link seems dead.

[edit]

Although it seems someone else started a new one.

Dammit! Those buggers don’t give up do they?

Nick Cooke

Please, nobody confuse that Fonts 101 site with http://1001fonts.com. That’s a completely different site.

Nick: no, I doubt they ever will, unfortunately.