Alert: Questionable Terms of Use in HBO's Game of Thrones Compendium

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

UPDATE 12/18/14: HBO has changed its terms of use to partially address the concerns below. See the addendum at the bottom of this post.

If you're an artist and a Game of Thrones fan, you may have heard that HBO is inviting contributions to "the ultimate compendium to Game of Thrones."

What exactly is the Compendium? According to the FAQ:

The Game of Thrones Compendium will be the world’s first collaborative, crowd-sourced compendium. The end result will be a printed and bound edition. Every entry chosen for inclusion in the printed book will receive a copy with their name listed as an author.

Entry is open to anyone over 18 in the USA, UK, Canada, and Brazil. A wide variety of content is eligible: "anything from story analysis, arts and crafts, original artwork, costume or jewelry design, music – anything that extends the Game of Thrones experience." There's a rigorous selection process, conducted by "[l]uminaries from the fields of journalism, food, art, craft, fantasy and fashion". Only a small number of submissions will make it into the printed book.

Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? So why is the Compendium being featured on Writer Beware?

Well, for a start, the lack of meaningful compensation for artists. Assembling content for free via crowdsourcing, and paying with contributor copies, is something you'd expect from small presses, tiny ezines, and one-off anthologies--not a huge corporation like HBO that, moreover, is likely to realize some serious revenue from this project. Could HBO not crack open its bank accounts to provide a few dollars for the people who are going to help it make all that money?

Of even more concern are the Terms of Use, to which anyone submitting work--not just finalists chosen for the Compendium--must agree. Here's the relevant language:

10. GRANT OF RIGHTS; USE OF SUBMITTED CONTENT:

(a) HBO will consider any Submissions and/or anything you contribute to this Service as available for its use free of any obligations to you. You understand that your Submissions may be published on the Service, on other websites, on advertising and promotions, and may be selected for the compendium book. Submissions will not be treated as confidential.

You understand that the Submissions are considered non-confidential and non-proprietary communications, and therefore others may view your Submissions without your knowledge.

(b) Subject to the provisions of any additional terms, by posting or uploading a Submission to this Service and/or providing any communication or material to HBO, you automatically and irrevocably:

(i) grant and assign to HBO a royalty-free, transferable, sublicenseable, non-exclusive, unrestricted license in the Submission throughout the world in perpetuity including, without limitation, all copyright, together with all consents (if any) necessary to use, reproduce, display, perform, modify, make derivatives of, translate, reformat, distribute, or publish for advertising and promotional purposes, including to be used on the Service and associated websites, by HBO and/or by any person authorized by HBO, by any means and in all media now known or hereafter devised, in whole or in part, without payment or other reference to you or any other person.

(ii) waive all moral rights in the Submission which may be available to you in any part of the world and confirm that no such rights have been asserted;

(iii) understand and agree that by submitting concepts, ideas, slogans, trade dress, logos or other branding you hereby disclaim any trademark rights in such Submissions.

(iv) appoint HBO as your agent with full power to enter into any document and/or do any act HBO may consider appropriate to confirm the grant and assignment, consent and waiver set out above;

Boiling all this down: HBO is claiming all rights in perpetuity to use for any purpose whatsoever without any obligation to pay or otherwise compensate for that use--and, since artists are required to waive moral rights, HBO doesn't even have to identify or credit the artist.

This is not really surprising, given that GoT is a media franchise. Even if you're not doing work-for-hire, if you're officially using elements of a media franchise (as distinct from non-official use such as fanfic or fan art), you will generally be expected to hand over copyright to the franchise owner. And indeed, Clause 10.b.i. requires artists to "grant and assign to HBO...without limitation, all copyright."

But while this is understandable for actual contributors to the Compendium, there's no need to demand it of everyone else. And HBO is indeed demanding it. Instead of doing what many other contests of this sort do, and letting the grant of rights expire upon rejection for artists who aren't selected, HBO is requiring the very same perpetual rights grant from everyone who submits, regardless of whether their submission is actually used. That is the very definition of a rights grab.

There's also an odd discrepancy. In Clause 10.b.i.--the same clause that demands the copyright assignment--the grant of rights is described as "non-exclusive." This would suggest that artists retain ownership of their work. But they if they've assigned copyright, they can't retain ownership--so what is "non-exclusive" doing in this clause? This makes no sense to me, and I fear it will mislead artists who skim through the Terms of Use.

As of this writing, the Compendium is six days away from opening for submissions. I would frankly not encourage anyone to submit under the terms that are being offered. HBO could easily have served its copyright interests as a franchise owner while being fairer to artists: allowing the grant of rights to expire upon rejection, paying artists chosen for inclusion. Instead, it's keeping everything for itself, as ruthless and greedy as any character in the show.

Shame on you, HBO.

UPDATE, 12/18/14: HBO has altered its Terms of Use to address some of the concerns expressed above. Here's the new language of Clause 10: 

10. GRANT OF RIGHTS; USE OF SUBMITTED CONTENT:

(a) You understand that your Submissions may be published on the Service and Submissions will not be treated as confidential.

(b) Subject to the provisions of any additional terms, by posting or uploading a Submission to this Service and/or providing any communication or material to HBO, you automatically and irrevocably:

(i) grant and assign to HBO a royalty-free, transferable, sublicenseable, non-exclusive, license in the Submission throughout the world to use, reproduce, display, perform, modify, reformat, distribute, or publish on the Service and to display at live events and in social media to showcase the Service.

(ii) waive all moral rights in the Submission which may be available to you in any part of the world and confirm that no such rights have been asserted;

(iii) warrant that you are the owner of the Submission and entitled to enter into this Agreement; and

(iv) confirm that no such Submission will be subject to any obligation, of confidence or otherwise, to you or any other person and that HBO shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of such Submission.

(c) Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, HBO hereby grants you a non-transferable, non-exclusive and limited license to use the names, images, characters, trademarks, logos, and other indicia of the HBO series “Game of Thrones,” (collectively, “GoT Materials”) solely in connection with the creation of a Submission for the Service. You shall not make any commercial use of this license or use the GoT Materials in conjunction with any third party trademarks, logos, names or other indicia.

What's better: This is now a true non-exclusive grant of rights--HBO no longer claims copyright on submissions. Artists now retain ownership of their work--although that's complicated by 10.c., which prohibits any commercial use of that work.

What's not better: The grant of rights still applies to all submissions--not just those that are chosen for the Compendium. Artists must still waive moral rights--and since those include the right of attribution, this means that HBO can use your submission without crediting you. And there's still no payment for artists.

The investment in Virgin Galactic

Aabar of Abu Dhabi has a second investment in Virgin Galactic in July, increasing its stake in the company for about a third of the property. This is the second investment fund in Abu Dhabi, in the last three years.

to sum up:

          2009 Investment of $ 280M reached a share of 31.8%. Feedback cash position of 900 million dollars.
          2011 investment of $ 110 million its stake to 37.8%.


Based on these data, I believe, a two scenarios:

Scenario # 1: Investment in 2009 was again the prices by less action that the Virgin was already investigated the company and in 2011 was an overview. An example is given below. Note the percentage change in the share price is valid, but the price action itself is private, so I a simplified example, for $ 1 per share.


Scenario 2: The share price has changed since its inception. Besides the two Virgin Aabar Investments spent $ 21.5 million from other outside investors. An example is the following mathematical relationship.


Both scenarios with Aabar match data in the last three years.

Motivational Table Virgin additional investments:
1. Preparation of the new growth (NANOSAT rockets or other new products)
2. Pay suborbital the delays in the completion of transaction for the product
3. To build a war chest for a rainy day (when the money is available, sometimes you just have)

Fort applicant for NRI - latest offering from Indian banks

       NRA recurring deposit is a new opportunity for many Indian banks like HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI and Kotak Mahindra offered after the investment. Successful run with fixed NRI deposit made with almost 25-30% increase in USD to INR exchange rate during the period of one year, remittances to India and investments in return the money and takes a lucrative option. Fort applicants for HDFC Bank RNA available and can also by other banks like Kotak Mahindra, I examine available. I recurring deposit for NRA because it can not require you to invest a good amount and you always combine the advantages of high interest rates with a super-exchange, before it's too late. As it is very clear that the interest in India will fall in the near future they have fallen from there spikes and fluctuations, I think the applicant deposit lock is the best thing you can do if he wants to keep the money or INR EMI would like the money to pay or buy a home.

NRI or NRE term deposits versus recurrent high
Most of us are familiar with what is a fixed deposit and the deposit NRA NRA applicants familiar, but I still have a summary of all our friends. Hard money is your money will be in some packages for a fixed term, the duration and the amount, and you have to spend cash on fixed deposit account opening. If the account is opened NRA NRA term is his name. Indian banks currently offer two types account for NRI customers outside India as the US, UK, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries in the Middle East is the first NRE savings account and the second is the savings account NGOs . I'm difference between NRE and NGOs in another post, but emphasize Now you should know that, with the help of NRE account, made of permanent and recurring online storage. Difference between the term now and fixed periodic is that the recurring payment, you can start investing a lump sum, without the obligation of a small fixed amount per month to invest, how to invest, rather than 50K, 1K 50 months. Fixed-term deposit and slightly different applicant and can check the bank's website before opening your account.

Deadline for customers HDFC NRI - Important details
You can open a recurring NRI deposit by HDFC Bank, as an NRE savings account with them. I think this can be done online, so do not worry recurring deposit to open. Here is an important feature of deposit accounts in HDFC NRE:

NRA rate of the best Indian banks HDFC SBI1 recurring deposits) to invest the amount of the deposit minimum time said is $ 500 and a maximum of less than 15 lakes.

2) The minimum period is 12 months and the deadline for return of deposit is 10 years. After 12 months, they have a number of three months 15 months, 18 months, etc. investment for a period of time is good, given the high interest rates on NRE available for guests.

3) The best part is that the interest on the deposit amount and the applicant's tax time in India merit completely free and fully traceable, means you get your money in dollars, if you want.

4) They also offer five days, which means you rate calculated within 5 days of your daily rate without penalty or fee.

5) The interests are changing control before it is too late. Currently they offer the same interest rate on NRE term deposits and this post he wrote

12 months 7.25%
8 15 months: 50%
24 months 8.50%
27 months 9.25%
36 months 9.25%

Clear 27-36 months at best.

6) Do not forget the castle in recurring NRE deposit period with a minimum lock time of 12 months, during this period, you can not break your RD.
7) Choose carefully cut amount you choose to pay monthly unable to decide how much per month, not what you put no pressure to be changed to any situation. Usually 3-5% of their monthly income is good to invest in NRE deposit applicants.

8) Interest NRE deposit applicants will once your RD is ripe to be paid.

Here are some of the features of HDFC recurring payment, you can check out more information about on-site

most other banks like State Bank of India SBI, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and JA also provide opportunities for returning NRI deposit rates here you can before making your money to invest compare. But always remember to choose the online transaction, and as most of them need to improve an NRE savings account to go for HDFC Bank.

Don't Do This: Wrong Ways to Try and Escape Your Deadbeat Publisher

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

The other day, I received this email:

Dear Writer Beware,

A couple of years ago, I published my mystery novel with [insert name of well-known deadbeat publisher here]. My contract won't expire for several more years, but I'm very unhappy with [deadbeat publisher] and would like to get out from under it. Can I change my title and publish on Amazon and hope [deadbeat publisher] won't see it?

I often receive such questions from authors who've tried and failed to get their rights back from their scammy or incompetent publishers, and are desperate to publish their books somewhere else. Can I change my title? Or the names of all the characters? Move the setting to a different country? Alter 10% of the book and legally make it a new work? Would my deadbeat publisher notice? Would it sue me?

In many cases, the answer to those last two questions is "very likely not." The odds that an author mill pumping out hundreds of books a year with minimal staff and attention would realize you'd re-published your work, or that an amateur small press struggling to stay afloat would have the resources to bring legal action against you, are probably pretty slim.

There's still a risk, though. And even if there weren't, these are still the wrong ways to escape a bad contract or a bad publisher. Here's why.

1. Traditional publishers want exclusive publishing rights, and their contracts require you to warrant that you are fully empowered to grant them. But if you're already contracted to another publisher, you cannot grant exclusive rights to someone else (regardless of any revision you may do--see #3 below). A new publisher won't want your book under those conditions--and signing a new publishing contract without disclosing that your rights are already encumbered would constitute fraud.

What if your old publisher was some super-obscure micropress that barely even managed to get your book on Amazon? Or went out of business without ever publishing? You may be able to make a convincing argument that your rights have returned to you if you can definitively show that your old publisher is out of business. Don't try and fool a new publisher, though--it's better to tell the truth and try to work things out than to lie and hope you won't be discovered. The Internet is forever: if your book was ever on sale, there's a record of it somewhere. A new publisher will not be pleased to learn that you haven't been completely candid.

(As a corollary, if your publisher has gone into bankruptcy or insolvency, do not assume that your rights have automatically reverted, regardless of what your contract says. Publishing contracts are assets that can be sold to pay creditors, and for that reason, courts don't generally honor bankruptcy and insolvency clauses.)

2. Unlike traditional publishers, self-publishing platforms only want non-exclusive rights. But they, too, require you to warrant that you are fully empowered to grant those rights--and if you're bound to an exclusive publishing contract, you can't do that.

 For instance, here's the relevant language from Kindle Direct Publishing Terms of Service (my bolding):

5.8 Representations, Warranties and Indemnities. You represent and warrant that: (a) you have the full right, power and authority to enter into and fully perform this Agreement and will comply with the terms of this Agreement; (b) prior to you or your designee's delivery of any content, you will have obtained all rights that are necessary for the exercise the rights granted under this Agreement; (c) neither the exercise of the rights authorized under this Agreement nor any materials embodied in the content nor its sale or distribution as authorized in this Agreement will violate or infringe upon the intellectual property, proprietary or other rights of any person or entity, including, without limitation, contractual rights, copyrights, trademarks, common law rights, rights of publicity, or privacy, or moral rights.

And here's Smashwords (again, my bolding):

9a. By submitting Your Work to Smashwords for publication, You, the Author or the Author you represent (if you are an Agent or Publisher) author’s Publisher or Agent or Distributor, warrant and represent that the work is complete and the author:

• is the only author of the Work;
• is the sole owner of the rights herein granted;
• has not assigned, pledged, or encumbered such rights or have not entered into any agreement which would conflict with the rights granted to Smashwords herein; and agrees not to do any of the aforementioned without first unpublishing the work at Smashwords
• has full right, power, and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights granted herein.

Just about any self-publishing platform--whether reputable or not--has similar terms. What happens if you breach them? Potentially, oblivion. All self-publishing platforms reserve the right to terminate your account and/or remove your work from sale if you breach your warranties (or any of their guidelines).

Don't assume they won't find out. Amazon, for instance, scours KDP for plagiarism; I've heard from authors whose legitimately re-published backlist works were removed from sale because anti-plagiarism algorithms tagged the original versions.

3. The "change 10% and legally make it a new work" thing is a common trope, but it is a myth. Ditto for changing all the characters'  names, or moving the book to a new setting. There's no legal standard for how much, or how little, of a book you can alter or revise to transform it sufficiently to create a new copyright.

Bottom line: there are no shortcuts or workarounds to rights reversion--and reverting rights is essential if you want to get out from under a deadbeat publisher and give your book new life somewhere else.

I've written some posts that may help:

How to request rights reversion from your publisher.

Getting out of your book contract (maybe).

MeGustaEscribir: Author Solutions Inc. Expands Into Spain

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Today I'm highlighting a post by author and self-publishing expert David Gaughran. Like Writer Beware, David has been following Author Solutions Inc. closely over the past few years, and has written a number of important, in-depth articles about ASI and its operations.

From David's blog:

Penguin Random House is speeding up the international expansion of its vanity press operations, while also seeking to integrate them more closely with the traditional side of the business – hoping to counteract flat growth for Author Solutions at a time when self-publishing is booming.

The expansion is MeGustaEscribir, which ASI will launch next Tuesday. ASI's press release describes MeGustaEscribir as "the supported self-publishing platform of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial" (Grupo Editorial is PRH's Spanish-language trade subsidiary).

ASI has created other pay-to-play imprints for major publishers--WestBow Press for Thomas Nelson and Archway Publishing for Simon & Schuster, among others--but this is the first time it has created one for its parent company (as most of you probably know, ASI is owned by PRH).

David observes that MeGustaEscribir offers the "mix of crappy publishing packages and ineffective, overpriced marketing services" that's characteristic of all ASI imprints. It also charges a form of reading fee:

Heavily touted on the MeGustaEscribir site is the Recognition Program – where customers will be recommended for review by an editor from Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial (that link is in Spanish, but Google Translate does a mostly reasonable job of getting the gist across).

Here’s the really shocking part. Consideration by a Penguin Random House editor is contingent on writers undergoing an Editorial Evaluation Report by MeGustaEscribir. The only publishing packages which contain this Evaluation Report are priced at 2,899 Euro (approx $3,600) and 3,999 Euro (approx $4,970).

(This actually reminds me of the "Publisher's Choice" program that iUniverse used to offer before it was acquired by ASI. Publisher's Choice promised participants the possibility--though not the certainty--of placement on Barnes and Noble store shelves, but only if they first bought a "Premier Plus" package, including an editorial evaluation, for over $1,000. See Writer Beware co-founder Ann Crispin's 2006 post about this program.)

David goes on to discuss the importance of international expansion for ASI, which appears to be facing flattening sales (that's sales of services to writers, not book sales) in the USA:

Out of the 211,269 self-published titles tracked by Bowker in 2011, Author Solutions imprints accounted for 41,605 books while a (reputable) competitor like CreateSpace registered 57,602 titles.

Fast forward to 2013, and the self-publishing boom has taken full effect – for everyone except Author Solutions. Bowker tracked 458,564 self-published titles which had been assigned ISBNs. Virtually none of that growth went to Author Solutions, despite launching several new imprints, including a high profile vanity press partnership with Simon & Schuster (Archway Publishing).

Author Solutions’ total for 2013, despite the staggering growth in self-publishing during that two year period, was just 45,574 – a barely noticeable increase on 2011’s numbers. For comparison CreateSpace registered 186,926 ISBNs that year, and Smashwords came out of nowhere to register 85,000.

Why has ASI's growth in the USA, long its primary market, slowed down so much? David feels that "a years-long campaign by writers is starting to take effect", and I agree. The number of online complaints and exposes has been mounting; just Google ASI or any of its imprints to see examples.

But more significant, I think, is the huge success of free electronic self-publishing platforms and distributors like KDP, Kobo, and Smashwords, which allow authors to launch themselves into a space where the perennial handicaps of print self-publishing--distribution and price--don't exist. ASI's business model, on the other hand, is inextricably linked to POD. For savvy self-publishers, ASI's services have come to seem not only questionable or costly, but old-fashioned as well.

No wonder ASI is reaching out into new markets. Via its Partridge imprint, ASI is already doing business in India, Africa, and Singapore. MeGustaEscribir expands its presence to Spain. What's next? Japan? China? Stay tuned.

Scam Warnings For Freelancers

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Identity Theft

This week, freelance writer Heather Boerner (who has published with such well-known venues as The Atlantic and The Washington Post) alerted me to her experience with a scammer.

Heather discovered the scam when she was contacted, out of the blue, by an individual who claimed to have hired her through a freelance jobs bidding website called oDesk. From an article about the scam by one of Heather's colleagues, Paul Raeburn:

[Heather] quickly realized that she had been the victim of identity theft. Somebody--a fake Heather--had gone to Boerner's website, copied her resume, downloaded her photo, linked to her website, and created an oDesk account offering services as a writer....

"It's an elaborate scheme. It's really bizarre," said Boerner, who has alerted some of her colleagues..."The guy who notified me of this said he had hired Fake Heather to do some writing. Fake Heather then hired people to do the writing for her [or him]." The person who notified Boerner said he gave Fake Heather $1,000.

Heather isn't the only one who has been victimized in this way. Freelancer Carol Tice encountered the same scam (and possibly, the same scammer). From Raeburn's article:

[Tice] received an email from someone wanting to know if Tice wanted to continue the writing project they were working on. "I assured her that I had never started article writing for her, and certainly wasn’t going to continue," Tice wrote in a blog post. "I didn’t even have any idea what topics she was having articles written about!"

As was the case with Fake Heather, Fake Carol set up a Skype account outside the U.S. (in London), and used Tice's name, photo, and website to connect with clients on a freelancers' website (in this case, Elance).

It's not clear whether this is a new trend in scams, or one person's ripoff scheme. But if you post your resume on bidding sites, it's something to be aware of.

How can you protect yourself? Some suggestions from freelancer Barbara A. Tyler:

♦ I strongly recommend that writers Google themselves on a regular basis. That can provide the first tip-off that someone is pretending to be you.

♦ Pay attention to any emails you get that seem off-kilter for whatever reason and investigate them like Carol did.

♦ From the flip side… if you get work through bidding sites (any bidding site, not just Elance) always, always, always do as much research as you can into the person hiring you.

Free Samples

This is not a new scam--in fact, it's a very old one. But I was reminded of it this week when a freelancer forwarded me this email she received when she responded to an ad:

Thank you for your interest in the Freelance Creative Copywriter role we recently posted. We reviewed lots of responses and based on your background/experience we have decided to move you to the next step in the process.

The next step in the process involves completing the attached assignment. Please read the background information and then put together your copy. We ask that you return your completed assignment to me by Monday, November 10th.

This will help us gauge your writing skills and abilities as it relates to meeting our needs and expectations.

Now, this "next step" may simply have the company's cheap-ass way of auditioning writers naive enough not to know that pro freelancers don't provide free samples (they may agree to write test pieces to see if they're a good fit, but not without compensation). Not precisely a scam, though certainly a scumbag move.

But it may also have been a sleazy outfit's attempt to obtain free content--in which case the writer, having completed the "assignment," would get the brushoff and later on discover that her copy had been used on the company's website or elsewhere online, without attribution. (In fact, this is something that can happen even if you do get paid.)

Wisely, the freelancer decided to blow the company off. It can't be said too often: always carefully research any job you're offered or are solicited for. Google is your friend. And listen to your gut. If something seems off, don't ignore it.

Alert: Cookbook Marketing Agency

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Are you thinking of creating your own cookbook--or have you already created one? Good news: an apparently new venture called Cookbook Marketing Agency is here to help.

Cookbook Marketing Agency (CMA) is a global book marketing agency, publisher and branding consultancy. Along with our partners, we have helped thousands of authors, as well as other publishers increase their book sales potential.

Sounds pretty impressive--if not very specific. That's OK, though, because CMA is ready to offer you a whole menu of assistance, including a promotional plan.

Some benefits you will enjoy as a client of Cookbook Marketing Agency:

1. Prominently displayed at national and international book fairs and shows
2. Featured in a proprietary catalog of authors and titles
3. Ability to have E-book distribution
4. A professionally written and distributed press release of your Cookbook
5. Access to a full staff of experts to aid with the design, editing, and distribution of your Cookbook
And much more!

There's even an affiliate plan, where you can earn 20% of "any revenue generated by your leads."

If you've guessed that none of this is free, you're right. There's a fee attached to every service provided by CMA--including its affiliate plan, which requires would-be affiliates to hand over $20 for "business calling cards." The affiliate plan page, however, is the only place on CMA's website where it's explicitly acknowledged that CMA clients are buying services:

You get paid if the prospective customer buys any of our products — anything from an a la carte marketing or publishing service or a full marketing campaign.

Another acknowledgment that's hard to find: the name of the company that's actually behind CMA. There are hints on CMA's catalog page, where all the listed books are published by a single publisher whose initials may be familiar to readers of this blog. But it's only in CMA's press release that the truth is revealed: CMA is "a publishing imprint of Publish On Demand Global (PODG)."

Why is this a concern?

Well, PODG and its other half, SBPRA (Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency), has been on Writer Beware's radar--under a dizzying variety of names--since 2001. Starting as a fee-charging literary agency, it expanded over the years into other agencies, vanity publishers, and marketing services, charging fees all along the way. Writer Beware has received hundreds of complaints. SBPRA/PODG and its owner, Robert Fletcher, recently settled a deceptive business practices lawsuit brought by the Florida Attorney General; among other things, the settlement requires Fletcher to pay $145,000 in court costs and author reparations. (For the full SBPRA/PODG story, including its failed defamation lawsuit against Writer Beware, see our Alert.)

It's always a good idea to know who you're really working with.