While what Chipotle says is true in the physical rhelm. When it comes to pubished books, the author has to sign a contract with the publisher before their work can start, well, publishing. Most of the time the compensation is designated on this contract. Whether it be percentage or one-time payment.
That being said, in the virtual world the "Contract" is called the 'Terms of Service'. Many services will require you to read it (or at the very least claim that you read it) before you can use their service. However, on many websites they just run by the rule, "if you use our site you agree to the ToS 'contract'".
So yes, one needs to watch that ToS like a hawk for any unscrupulous changes. Though I'm sure, in this fandom, someone has already saved off the document when IMVU took over. It's not in any company's best interest to secretly change a ToS. Especially on a site that doesn't require you to click a check box to claim you read it.
In fact, if anything did go to court based on changes to the ToS, even if they make a public announcement it had changed, I would say one could argue because since each individual user is not forced to mark that they read through the document, one can claim that they never knew they had to read it for changes. I mean, so many other services require you to mark you read it when changes are made, it's almost an expectation is it not?
But as far as things are right now, FA never had the rights of resale to your work (just the rights to display it on their site). So they could not sell those rights to IMVU. It's kind of more like someone selling their collection of baseball cards than the people who printed the cards.
While what Chipotle says is true in the physical rhelm. When it comes to pubished books, the author has to sign a contract with the publisher before their work can start, well, publishing. Most of the time the compensation is designated on this contract. Whether it be percentage or one-time payment.
That being said, in the virtual world the "Contract" is called the 'Terms of Service'. Many services will require you to read it (or at the very least claim that you read it) before you can use their service. However, on many websites they just run by the rule, "if you use our site you agree to the ToS 'contract'".
So yes, one needs to watch that ToS like a hawk for any unscrupulous changes. Though I'm sure, in this fandom, someone has already saved off the document when IMVU took over. It's not in any company's best interest to secretly change a ToS. Especially on a site that doesn't require you to click a check box to claim you read it.
In fact, if anything did go to court based on changes to the ToS, even if they make a public announcement it had changed, I would say one could argue because since each individual user is not forced to mark that they read through the document, one can claim that they never knew they had to read it for changes. I mean, so many other services require you to mark you read it when changes are made, it's almost an expectation is it not?
But as far as things are right now, FA never had the rights of resale to your work (just the rights to display it on their site). So they could not sell those rights to IMVU. It's kind of more like someone selling their collection of baseball cards than the people who printed the cards.