Non-Competes – Revisited

[Grinner Hester]

eeeeeeh I hate when I have to admit I’m wrong.
I guess what I meant to say is “dadgummit it’s a crying freakin shame these things have to exist.”
While I often claim or boast a one size fits all answer, it’s often comedic only because I was signing something I hated the night before.
I do look at it as certain gigs require them though… not certain intities. Helps the flavor of the gig wonders.
When I look bad at the burning beds I have laid on, they were indeed on fire when I laid down.

heavy.

[Walter Biscardi]

[grinner hester] “eeeeeeh I hate when I have to admit I’m wrong.
I guess what I meant to say is “dadgummit it’s a crying freakin shame these things have to exist.” “

Well, heck I’ve been wrong about this for a while too. Go back and look at my responses to Non Compete threads and I’ve been on the side of “They are not legal, period.” We’ve never too old to learn….

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Walter.

Can I throw into the mix by suggesting that non-competes are not only about clients. I know of a couple of very “advanced” people that also get freelancers/assistants to sign that they wont use or pass on any of the techniques that they are taught or shown whilst in their employment/under contract.

Obviously this a very grey area, but if you have spend years perfecting a certain process or filming technique etc – why not?

All the Best
Mads
London, UK

Mac Million Ltd. – HD Production & Editing
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[Todd Terry]

[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “I know of a couple of very “advanced” people that also get freelancers/assistants to sign that they wont use or pass on any of the techniques that they are taught”

I think yes, that happens to some degree.

Quite a few years ago I developed a film simulation process that I called FauxFilm. Now, mind you, this was long before the days that 24p cameras even existed, or Magic Bullet or any of the early film simulation software. It could be used live, or with NLEs (which were just coming into play). It put a perfect 3:2 pulldown into 60i footage, pretty much exactly like the company FilmLook did (anybody remember them?). The thing is, it was actually a painfully simple process, I actually just stumbled upon it by accident. On a couple of occasions I did have to have other editors in working, and it was impossible to hide the “secret” of how it worked because of its simplicity. I didn’t make them sign anything, but I did make them swear on their grandmothers’ graves that they wouldn’t take the technique elsewhere, and as far as they know, they didn’t. In hindsight, I might have been overly-trusting.

Today, we don’t exactly do anything that’s super-secret, but we are sort of known as the “McGuyvers” (or some might argue “McGrubers”) in the market, with lots of little tricks, gimmicks, and processes that make things look better and cost less. We’ll sometimes get the calls from freelancers saying “Put me on your crew call list, I know you guys would be fun to work with.” What is pretty easy to tell is that some of them simply want to get onto set or location not so much to work, but more just to see how we do things and take that knowlege elsewhere or to their own companies, which are sometimes our competition. Well, we generally don’t hire these guys. Some are blatent enough to say “I really wanna learn to light like you do” or “I want to see how you direct,” or some variation of that.

Sorry, I’m running a business in a competitive market, not a film school.

And I really don’t think there is anything wrong with that position.

I’m glad to share my limited knowlege with the great folks here in the worldwide COW community, and learn much from all your wisdom as well. And I’ll help out college or high school kids in their production classes all they want, and more. We do that all the time. And I’ve happily taught a few tricks to eager freelance crews when we were shooting on location in other states or across the country. But other companies in my area who are going after the same client base as ours?… or even after our current clients? Nah, not so much.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Randy Wheeler]

Judge Orders Apple’s New iPod and iPhone Chief to Stop Work Immediately

Mark Papermaster, a former IBM executive who’s replacing retiring iPod chief Tony Fadell, came to Apple with some heavy baggage—namely a one-year no-compete clause that IBM said he was violating by working at Apple. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karashas sided with IBM for the time being in their lawsuit, ordering Papermaster to “immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court.”

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/judge_orders_apples_new_ipod_and_iphone_chief_to_stop_work_immediately-2.html

Randy

[Chris Blair]

Interesting thread. We’ve discussed this internally in our company just recently after I stumbled across the websites of a freelance producer and a freelance videographer, who both have dozens of samples of work they’ve done while working with us posted.

They describe the work and the client as if they are their own, with no mention of our company.

I was quite surprised, as these are people I’ve trusted for years. I couldn’t believe they would take work that we gave them and pawn it off as their own…especially when we were the primary creative and technical force behind the finished work. What bothered me even more was to describe the client as if it was their own!

BUT…it made me examine some of our own practices. We use a freelance graphic designer for most of our print layout and design, including logos, brochures, billboards, annual reports etc. If you view samples on our webpage or look at our hard-bound portfolio, we promote that work as if it was our own.

So…the question becomes, should we give the freelancer credit on our website and in our portfolio when presenting this work as a sample to potential clients?

How is what we’re doing any different than what the freelance producers are doing on their websites?

For me the difference is that the clients are OUR clients. But beyond the suggestion on the websites that the clients were their own, for me there’s little difference. But it’s made us consider asking freelancers to sign a very specific non-compete agreement that at the very least bars them from promoting OUR clients as if they are clients of the freelancer.

What are thoughts on this??

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com