First Right of Refusal does not belong in a website's Terms of Service, full-stop.
First Right of Refusal being retroactively applied without signed consent is not the sort of thing that creators should accept as ethical behavior.
It's just not normal or appropriate behavior. I'm interested in the response, but it's the intent that made such a breach of normal, ethical practices possible that concerns me most.
Show me the creators you speak of? So far all I see is medium-small creators throwing notices onto their profile where they blow it all out of proportion. It's irrational rumorspreading and it annoys me to the point that the last person I saw doing it I unsubbed to.
I would like to add that my partner and myself came to Tapastic about a month ago after joining in a skype call with Michael Son in which it was made expressly clear to us that Tapas creators retain full and complete rights to their work. I still need time to fully understand the updated ToS but this feels like a betrayal of that right off the bat, especially for us as new creators hoping to publish on several platforms.
Publishing on other platforms is not an issue. If tapas meant anything weird with this they would have taken advantage of their assumed "rights" long ago.
Most really popular comics on the site are on other places and it steals potential traffic for tapas. Sarah's Scribbles is on Webtoon. AMOLAD is on Webtoon. The list goes on. They haven't been struck. Small creators aren't being struck.
You'd think they'd take advantage of the rule before people flipped out like this if that was what they intended.
Ah, but what makes a man or woman small? Is it the amount of money they make? Or perhaps the number of friends that they have? Or else, maybe it is the number of people who look at what they are doing?
Or, perhaps, it's when they see other people with stories to tell and creative goals as numbers ... instead of people with inherent rights.
You still have all your rights! What I gather is that basically if you're offered money by another platform or publisher to exclusively go with them because your work has potential to make it big, Tap wants to see if they can make a better offer to you and in the end both parties profit.
This person said "popular creators" for a reason: To invoke fear into Tapas staff to make them consider it for financial reasons. That's the only reason I cared to involve popularity levels. Because it's economically relevant for the site and for the post I was replying to.
TBH for me it's less about what they intended and more about what they have the capability to do now that they have switched around their ToS and retroactively applied First Right of Refusal. You're getting on people for "flipping out" but imo it's perfectly reasonable for creators to be wary? I get why overreaction annoys you but it's good to be cautious about things like this.
And why, pray thee, should we be doing that? I don't see any benefit at all for creators other than a bullying annoyance.
Also, to make sure, how does this work retroactively? Say, someone joined Tapas long ago but has since left the site but still kept their comic archives on their account and has decided to publish without even knowing about the new rules - would that affect them too, or only people who actually have used the site lately?
Like if you start posting here and then get an offer from some other place you go, "Oh hey, Tap, this place is offering me 12k a month for my work. Can you beat that?"
If they can't, they'll just let you go. Good for you, you're getting 12k a month from some other place.
If they can beat that, then WOW, really good for you!
It's just business savvy imo.
Caution is one thing, and caution requires calmness. The way people are running around like headless chickens going "I'M LEAVING!!! I'M LEAVING!!!! YOU ALL FUCKING SUCK!!!!" right now with huge wallposts claiming tapas has gone full dick mode to screw us all is plain immature and irrational.
Sit the fuck down and chill the hell out. Geez.
I haven't seen an irrational emotional mess like this since high school.
Edit: Oh who am I kidding, this is the internet and people love their drama. EVERYTHING online is the end of the universe.
I've said my piece.
I feel pretty calm. I'll just repeat:
First Right of Refusal has no place in a website's Terms of Service, full-stop.
There's really no defense for it.
Yes, we absolutely need to wait for Tapas to come out and clarify this.
However, the problem is that this is absolutely restricting our rights as creators to our own work. @AkivaMCohen, the lawyer that chimed in, theorizes that this even could apply to self-publishing our works. Tapas absolutely needs to clarify this immediately. Just because your series is big doesn't mean you should disregard the fact that this does negatively impact everyone on the site.
I publish my series on other sites so if they intended to use it in that manner I would be in trouble too.
But I am not going to worry until I see a confirmed reason to.
I'm not freaking out or leaving (yet at least. Gonna wait for tapas to give a statement) but I'm iffy about the fact that the wording is really open. I'm not savvy with legalese but it could impact also self publishing and that's what I'm honestly worried about. And the fact that First Right of Refusal is actually something that publishers PAY to have from creators, not take for free. :/
Yep exactly right. Honestly it's beneficial to creators that this is in the ToS. It's good to know that I have Tapas as a bargaining chip if another publisher offers a bid to my work. Now I have two competitors that must bid against each other and I get the highest bidder. And honestly most of us aren't even going to notice or use this. People are just spreading fear.
But I already am making money elsewhere. Why should I warn Tapastic, first? This place is not special, its business practices are awful, the forums are nearly dead, lots of functionalities are buggy, the same 4 comics are promoted over and over again, and now this? 
There is nothing business savvy in Tapastic. They're on their way to their doom.
Thanks for clarifying this @joannekwan and potoo
definitely hard for me to understand legalese. I'm still wary and I'm waiting for Tapas to come forward and clarify tho
