Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

Greg Smith wrote:This ongoing debate (featured over there at CGTalk) is disturbing and disruptive, especially to a new customer like me. I just put down a large sum of cash to obtain TVPaint, based on the trust that the TVPaint product will be around for a while and the TVPaint company will continue to support me and the products I have paid for, as well as continue to develop their software innovations.

I'm not an attorney, nor do I understand all of the ramifications of a successful lawsuit on the part of Bauhaus against the TVPaint company, since TVPaint is based in France and the lawsuit is taking place in a United States federal court. I don't know how far their jurisdiction stretches, or whether all of this involves international trade agreements, or what.

Please put all of my fears and suspicions to rest by clarifying what the likely outcome(s) of all these things might be. Please be bold and speak the truth.

Thank you,

Greg Smith

TVPaint and Bauhaus entered into a license agreement that allowed Bauhaus to distribute TVPaint’s software in the United States on July 11, 2003. When Bauhaus failed to meet its agreed sales levels of TVPaint’s software, the parties settled their differences by modifying the license agreement on January 31, 2005. By October of 2005 it became apparent that Bauhaus was not going to comply with the required license payments to TVPaint. When Bauhaus defaulted under the license agreement, TVPaint offered to meet with Bauhaus in San Antonio to discuss Bauhaus’s failure to pay under the license agreement. The meeting was finally arranged for Canada in November.

In November of 2005, TVPaint traveled all the way from France to Canada to meet with Bauhaus. Instead of beginning negotiations to resolve the failure of Bauhaus to pay its agreed royalties, Mr. Paul Ford with Bauhaus started and ended the meeting by reading TVPaint a letter that must have been prepared by a lawyer threatening the filing of a $12,000,000.00 USD lawsuit against TVPaint if TVPaint terminated the license agreement because Bauhaus failed to paid the agreed royaties to TVPaint and if TVPaint began to sell and market TVPaint’s software in the USA. Bauhaus secretly filed a suit against TVPaint in December of 2005 but kept it secret until May of 2006 when the U.S. Judge was going to dismiss the suit for failure to give notice and serve TVPaint.

The license agreement provided in not uncertain terms that if Bauhaus failed to pay the agreed royalties, the right of Bauhaus to distribute TVPaint’s software could be terminated. Pursuant to the agreement, TVPaint gave Bauhaus the required notice of default which gave Bauhaus a chance to pay the past due royalties owed to TVPaint. Bauhaus continued to refuse to pay the past due royalties and was notified on January 25, 2006 that the rights of Bauhaus under the license agreement were canceled. After cancellation of all of Bauhaus’s rights under the license agreement, only TVPaint could sell authorized copies of its copyrighted software in the US, and any continued sales by Bauhaus would be in violation of the agreement and the copyright laws.

Bauhaus ignored the cancellation and continued to sell unauthorized copies of TVPaint’s software. There are lawsuits pending in the French Court in Metz and the United States District Court in San Antonio.

In the suits, TVPaint has asked for an injunction against Bauhaus from selling unauthorized copies of TVPaint’s copyrighted software. The license agreement clearly states that it can be terminated for failure to pay royalties and any claimed breaches by TVPaint cannot prevent the cancellation. Bauhaus’s untenable and outrageous $12,000,000.00 USD lawsuit lists what BHS calls "contractual failures" but the claims of Bauhaus are contradicted by the terms of the license agreement. Furthermore, even assuming that TVPaint breached the license agreement, which is vehemently denied, this would not avoid termination of Bauhaus’s rights under the license agreement for failure to pay royalties.

One preposterous claim of Bauhaus is that because it participated in adding an animator toolbar to the TVPaint software, this gives Bauhaus sole and exclusive ownership of TVPaint’s software and the right to ignore the royalty and cancellation provisions of the license agreement. Even assuming that Bauhaus is the “author” of the animator toolbar added to TVPaint’s software, which is denied, this would not give Bauhaus any ownership or distribution rights to TVPaint’s underlying software and copyright. It is fundamental copyright law that creating a derivative work does not give additional rights to the underlying work. When the license on the underlying TVPaint software and copyright is cancelled for non-payment of royalties, all rights to distributing the otherwise infringing derivative work terminate.

At this point the biggest fear of TVPaint is that faced with the inevitable loss of all of its rights in TVPaint’s software, Bauhaus will act to destroy all good will in TVPaint’s software.

mlmiller1983 wrote:Where can those of us living in the United States without a paypal account purchase TVP Animation Pro when it is released? Thanks!!!

3) You can also order to TVPaint using one of the purchase order in pdf format you will find below.
...
You will have to sent it back to us via email or postal mail. You will be then advised that your order has been taken in charge via email.

TVPaint wrote: Btw, you can already purchase TVP Animation now and then upgrade to TVP Animation Pro, it will cost the same as a new licence of TVP Animation Pro !

Tantalus wrote:does this also apply for the student licenses?
or will there be no student version of Pro?