The Contract
One signature, and both of Hermes's strikes vanish. He's safe for exactly nine hours.
Keep cutting for Apollo, or quit the contract?
Comment STAY or QUIT on the episode. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube all count.
Closes Oct 24, 2026 · 1pm ET
- Followers
- 4600
- Earned
- €40
- Days left
- 24
You voted, and WORK won. At 11:40 a.m., one page arrives from Apollo: his terms, forty euros a clip. One line glows gold: work made for hire. Hermes doesn't read it twice. At noon, he signs his real name, and breaks his own rule one: never leave a trace.
At 12:12, Apollo keeps his word and retracts both copyright strikes. Hermes gets to work. By eight, the clip he cut has two million views on Apollo's channel. His pay: forty euros, the first money he has ever made.
At 8:30 p.m., proud of his cut, Hermes posts it on his own channel and gains five hundred followers. At 9:12, a removal request lands. From Apollo. Strike one, again. Here is the trap: in the US, a work specially commissioned as part of an audiovisual work, with a written agreement signed by both sides, is a work made for hire. The one who hired is considered the author, not the one who made it, and the copyright lasts 95 years from publication.
Here is what Hermes doesn't know: at 9:12 that morning, a message reached Apollo. Make him sign. Now the choice: stay, and the strike may go, but every cut belongs to Apollo. Quit, and his cuts are his again, but the strike from his own boss stays.
One last thing: under Apollo's clip, one comment is pinned. From nobody_.
The one who hires is the author
US law says that in the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author, and owns all of the rights in the copyright unless both parties agreed otherwise in a signed writing. The Copyright Office puts it plainly: the author is not the individual who actually created the work.
One signed line is enough
A work specially ordered or commissioned for use as part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, one of nine listed categories, is a work made for hire if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that it shall be considered one.
Ninety-five years
The copyright in a work made for hire endures for 95 years from the year of its first publication, or 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first.
A retraction ends a strike
YouTube says a copyright strike can be resolved if the person who submitted the removal request retracts it. Three copyright strikes make an account, along with any associated channels, subject to termination.
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