Section 9
9. Breach and Termination
9.1 If Party B acts in breach of the provisions of this Agreement by delaying to submit the Draft, Party A may send a reminder to Party B (by way of delivery via courier or email or any other means). If the Draft delivered by Party B does not meet Party A's requirements, at the request of Party A, Party B shall make revisions or additions to the Draft in accordance with Clause 2.2 above. If Party B is still unable to deliver a Draft after three reminders or is still unable to meet Party A's web Channel(s) publishing requirements after three revisions or additions, Party A has the right to choose to immediately suspend or terminate this Agreement, and Party B shall return all income obtained from Party A for the Work under this Agreement and compensate Party A for all losses suffered in that connection, including but not limited to additional expenses incurred by Party A such as notary fees, attorney fees, accreditation fees, litigation fees, and travel fees.
(PER 9.1, this is where the problems are really starting, as far as I can see. The requirement to meet here is so vague. So with the derogatory clause being contract legal and okay, your "handler" on webnovel can be as confusing and demanding as they want to be and their staff will still be in the right while your only right is to have your name attached to the "Work" per the derogatory clause. If they want you gone to monopolize income more, they can easily do it as you can easily fail to meet the three reminders, revisions or additions as they "requested". And once terminated, return all income from the contract or Work Arrangement, even those months you were satisfying their demands. As the wording makes this possible, it is difficult to simply tell someone to "rely on good faith".)
9.2 If Party B is in breach of Clause 3 of this Agreement, Party A may take such measures as is necessary and appropriate to protect its own rights and interests, including but not limited to the termination of royalties payments and the termination of the Agreement; moreover, Party B shall return all income obtained from Party A from the performance of this Agreement and compensate Party A for all losses suffered in that connection, including but not limited to any expenses incurred by Party A such as notary fees, attorney fees, accreditation fees, litigation fees, and travel fees.
(PER 9.2, this connects back to Clause 3. That is the part where webnovel owns basically everything about your Work and its derivatives. Remember the clause where you have a minimum and maximum word count and they say stop, assuming you write more, like mentioned, it basically counts as fanfic since that is unpaid and after they've told you to stop. That additional chapter(s) you did could be treated as violation of webnovel's exclusive copyright and you are infringing on them as you made an illegal fanfic, side story etc. You are basically affected by 9.2 if you type and post another chapter after they've said STOP then you have to return all the payments to them. Again, it is what it looks like because of the wording.)
9.3 If Party B is in breach of the warranties in Clause 4.1 of this Agreement, Party A may, at its sole discretion, withhold the publication of the Work and the payment of royalties; moreover, Party B shall return to Party A all income obtained from Party A from the performance of this Agreement and compensate Party A for all losses suffered in that connection, including but not limited to any expenses incurred by Party A such as notary fees, attorney fees, accreditation fees, litigation fees, and travel fees.
(PER 9.3, this connects to 4.1 which is the throw you under the bus clause and webnovel doesnt need to provide any legal support to sort this out.)
9.4 If the Work submitted by Party B is inconsistent with the Draft, or Party B breaches any provisions of this Agreement, or the Work does not comply with Party A's requirements, or the Work does not meet the market's demand, Party A may require Party B to make additions to or revisions of the completed Work; if Party B refuses to accept Party A's reasonable revision requirements or still fails to meet Party A's reasonable requirements after three (3) revisions, Party A has the right to choose to immediately suspend or terminate this Agreement; Party A may also take measures to protect its own rights and interests, including but not limited to requiring that the Work be completed in advance meeting the minimum word count requirements, having the Work continue to be written by Party A itself or a commissioned third party until it is completed (the copyright to the part of the Work completed by Party A itself or a commissioned third party shall belong to Party A, and Party A is not required to make any payment to Party B for any fees related to this part of the Work), and changing the method of payment of royalties; moreover, Party B shall return all income obtained from Party A from the performance of this Agreement and compensate Party A for all losses suffered in that connection, including but not limited to expenses incurred by Party A such as notary fees, attorney fees, and litigation fees.
(PER 9.4 What is market demand? What defines it? There is clear cut definition of it. Is it total views per chapter? Total powerstones received? Total Spirit Stones received? Or Total Paid Spirit Stones only?
Also, I thought that storytelling was flexible as a reader's feature on webnovel, as a site where a reader can influence changes to the story with the spirit stones/powerstones. Yet here, the Author strictly has to adhere to the Draft originally submitted.
Also, since they can propose revisions, doesn't that make it possible to deviate from your draft submission? And with those changes, we go back to the 3 revision/reminder rule previously mentioned as grounds for termination.
Also, with this clause, as an example, say you meet the maximum word count, webnovel can make demands (derogatory remarks all permissible), additions plus revisions of the completed work is a-okay per this clause. With that as a starting point, they can lock you in again in the revision/reminder loop, giving them grounds for termination and having you return all income as stipulated in these termination clauses. Again, it is the ambiguity in the wording that allows for this argument to exist.)
9.5 If Party B violates any of its warranties under Clauses 4.2 and 4.3 of this Agreement, Party A has the right to immediately terminate this Agreement and require that Party B compensate Party A for all losses suffered in that connection, including but not limited to any expenses incurred by Party A such as notary fees, attorney fees, accreditation fees, litigation fees, and travel fees.
(PER 9.5 this connects back to 4.2 and 4.3 which was said to be underhanded because the contracts should be Work exclusive contracts not author exclusive but since it was mentioned there, this can mean that if a contracted author has signed with webnovel, even if he has a different story, old or new written out, he can't make any agreements with any other party while contracted. This includes agreement to TOS of KDP or other selfpublishing sites to sell ebooks of other stories not connected to the signed work. Doing so is contractually a violation of the terms of this agreement and will give webnovel the right to terminate this contract and the author loses rights to everything and has to return any/all income along with penalties of the fees as stated. Do keep in mind the contract is with the person/author not a pen name or alias, so even if you hide under a different alias/pen name, this contract affects those still.)
9.6 If Party B acts in breach of its warranty under Clause 4.4 of this Agreement, in addition to the possibility of Party A enforcing its rights pursuant to Clause 9.5 above, Party B shall also independently bear all relevant criminal liability.
9.7 If Party A unreasonably owes Party B payable royalties or income and still makes no payment despite written reminders from Party B, additional charges at 3 per cent. of the amount of royalties or income owed per day shall be borne by Party A; if the payments continue to be owed for over thirty (30) days, Party B has the right to terminate this Agreement upon 30 days prior written notice to Party A.
(PER 9.7, there is no mention that copyright will be returned even if webnovel is at fault and Party B, the author, was the one in the right.)
9.8 In addition to the foregoing provisions, if either Party acts in breach of the obligations stipulated under this Agreement, the Party in breach shall immediately refrain from acting in breach of the Agreement within five (5) days upon receipt of a written notice from the other Party requesting rectification; if the Party in breach continues to breach this Agreement or fails to fulfil its obligations hereunder, the other Party has the right to suspend, rescind, or terminate the Agreement in advance and shall be compensated for all resulting losses suffered, including but not limited to additional expenses such as notary fees, attorney fees, accreditation fees, litigation fees, and travel fees.
(PER 9.8, there is no mention that copyright will be returned even if webnovel is at fault and Party B, the author, was the one in the right.)
9.9 For the avoidance of doubt, even if the Agreement is terminated in accordance with this Clause 9, the irrevocable licence granted in Clause 3 will still continue. Party B's exclusive remedies in respect of Party A's breach pursuant to Clause 9.7 are monetary damages.
(PER 9.9, And here is where we get our AHA moment. Even if webnovel is in violation for nonperformance of their contract obligation, they still retain your copyright after you, as Party B, terminate the contract per your right.)
9.10 The Parties agree and acknowledge that if this Agreement is suspended, terminated, or rescinded in advance for any reason, the surviving rights and obligations provided for in this Agreement with respect to the transferring, licensing, and confidentiality obligations in respect of the Work shall remain in force.
(PER 9.10, again webnovel would like to remind you by repeating what 9.9 said so you can't claim to have not seen this coming. Or at least the contract would like to repeat spirit of the wording of the previous clause.)