The nommo Primer
From the nommo Institute for Creative Futures
Nobody should need a lawyer or an accountant to understand what they are owed.
12 short volumes on the things creators and collectors are so often expected to already know: royalties, rights, publishing, licensing, ownership. Each answers one question well, in plain language, and takes about a minute to read. Free, for anyone.
If you make things
What you are owed, what you own, and the words people use when they talk about either.
What copyright actually protects, and when you get it
Copyright exists the moment you create something, not the moment you register it.
Where royalty money actually comes from
A royalty isn't a bonus or a gift, it's rent.
What music publishing actually means
When someone says a song has been "published," they don't mean it's been printed or put online.
What an ISBN actually does, and when you need one
An ISBN doesn't protect your book, and you don't need one to write, sell, or even copyright it.
What happens after a film is finished
Finishing a film and being able to license it are two different achievements.
What's different about selling a photograph or a piece of visual art
A song or a film almost always involves more than one right at once, a recording, a composition, sometimes a script.
What it actually means to license something
Licensing sounds like a legal formality, but it's a simple idea: permission, with terms attached.
Getting your work played on the radio or TV
A broadcast license is separate from a sale: a verified DJ, radio, or TV station pays to publicly perform a work you've opted in, ownership and edition size never change.
If you collect
What it means to own a work, and why its history is part of what you hold.
What it means to collect, not just own a file
Anyone can own a copy of a file.
Why a work's history matters as much as its creator
Provenance is the record of everywhere a work has been: who made it, who's owned it, when it changed hands, and what happened to it along the way.
How nommo works
The two things everyone meets first: the split at the point of sale, and the rating at the point of upload.
How the 70/30 split works
When a collector buys your work, nommo keeps 30% and you keep 70%, automatically, the moment payment completes, no invoice or monthly payout request needed.
What a content rating means here
Self-declared by the creator at upload, the same G to NC-17 scale film uses, so you know roughly what to expect before you buy.