# Derivative licensing royalty

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/derivative-licensing-royalty/430843>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 21, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/derivative-licensing-royalty/430843 "2007-12-21T17:40:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/derivative-licensing-royalty/430843/1 "2007-12-21T17:40:30Z")

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A publishing contract between a publisher, a comic book artist, and a story content owner (from which the comic book story is derived) gives the artist a royalty of 35% of the total profits. The artist is a joint owner of the copyright with the publisher and story content owner.

However, for sale or licensing of the art for third-party use (e.g., video games, T-shirts), the artist gets a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 10%, depending on whether additional artwork is needed (10% if yes, 2% if no).

Is that considered a standard royalty rate for comic book artists for third-party derivative uses?

Also, the agreement is for 10 years. Typical?