Story goes like this…

During Covid i got divorced and retreated to the isolated place. I invested my “grief” time into the new hobbies inspired by the sorrow I was going trough :/ One of the hobbies was 360 space videos for VR and mobile phones. I learned a lot and uploaded to the YouTube couple of them, one year later my video was noticed and I was offered to take a part into the VR project by a Belgian company.

Because I never worked on similar jobs, as I am not professional and working in totally different sphere, we agreed to price be much less than the market price. I was totally ok with that as I wanted to be part of something new and thought that would be a great new experience. We had video calls, messages, we added each other on Instagram, to sum it up, we had a great working flow and I said that he can pay me after full work is done…my biggest mistake, I should only sent him low res file and wait for the payment before send him full res…but can’t go back in time…

Job was finished 6 months ago, during all that time he’s been telling me that he is having some sort of problems and can’t send it right away, he will send more money as bonus, etc etc, last message by me was left on \*seen. I was very busy with my other work so I didn’t push it too much and truthfully believed that they were having some problems and wanted to give them time.

I don’t know anything about law, especially in Belgium or EU, as I live in one of the Balkan states outside of EU.

I know is a long shot and I did a lot of stupid mistakes and did not secured myself, but can I do anything to claim my money? Lack of experience and good intentions are probably gonna cost me.

Only “documents” I have is signed NDA.

Videos of my “hobby” that got noticed, please watch on max resolution on phone or VR.

Earth and Moon – Moonlight Sonata – [https://youtu.be/W2zrOZI2Doc](https://youtu.be/W2zrOZI2Doc)

Space Roller Coaster – [https://youtu.be/D7KvHukWZDk](https://youtu.be/D7KvHukWZDk)

5 comments

  1. Only documents you have are an NDA? So you have no contract or anything about payment?

    Hope that whatever you are expected to get paid will cover for a long-term lawyer..

  2. No signed contract? No signed agreements? Nothing at all?

    Technically you don’t need a signed contract, as a a verbal agreement is equally binding, but that is very hard to prove. Either be prepared to go to court, trying to use any text or chat messages as proof, but honestly… you fucked up here.

    Or suck it up, and consider this a learning experience for any future projects.

  3. Easy, if you have a contract, they need to pay.

    Edit: Just read you have no contract signed. Big mistake. You will never see your money.

  4. Regardless of a contract, if it is artistic work you are the author and they need your approval to use it in any way. So as long as you can prove you created it, they are required by law to have some sort of agreement (with/without compensation) with you.
    The fact that your cooperation may make this into something which was co-created does make things a bit less straightforward, but the basic principle should hold up.

  5. Eh that’s nothing.

    I did a project for a *multinational* company through a university researcher at the University of Luxembourg and I was supposed to be paid 4000 euro for 4 months work.

    2 months in , my contract, which I had signed and sent to them, was still “going to get signed by the Dean soon”. So…I stopped communicating often and when push came to shove, I delivered what work I had done until then (looking back I shouldn’t have) and called it a day. I could technically sue but it would cost me much more than them since they have lawyers on retainer etc.

    My point is, these “scams” go well beyond what you experienced.

    Also, a more important point: Always, always, ALWAYS get paid upfront, at least in part, and ALWAYS make sure you have a contract signed. Pen on paper, both you and them, and make sure you have a copy in a safe place.

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