Intellectual Property

[Aemar]

Since there are a lot of indie devs around, I'd like to ask how do you guys usually manage these legal aspects and what steps are to be taken towards legally protecting one's product?

 

[spectre]

Strongest form of IP protection is probably putting: "Support game developers!, if you like it BUY IT!" somewhere visible.

Jokes aside, while I’m no expert on the subject, here’s what I know. It’s a bit different when you develop all the stuff on your own and when you’re hiring people.

Most often, when you’ll have to protect your shit vs. copyright claims, it’s either some wanker trying to mooch you for money - in this case you need to be able to prove that you developed your stuff independently. Just save all the beta versions, incremental copies, etc. somewhere safe. Remember to timestamp them. E.g. if you’re writing the background story, save a different file after completing each chunk, save the first draft and all subsequent revisions. This should keep you on the safe side.

Or, you may have snagged something copyrighted without checking. In this case, exercise caution when picking stuff from the internets. If you really need it, check for copyrights, contact the author, get permission to use (save all communications if you do). If you can’t find the author or terms of use, don’t use it. Usually open source stuff has it all detailed in some kind of a FAQ - what kinds of disclaimers you need to use to stay kosher.

There are cunts out there who may try to force you into settling out of court, counting that you are too busy for this shit and are easily scared by legal babble. It’s just bluffing, and you can call it simply by asking of proof that they (or whoever they claim to represent) own the materials. It is important that you trust in your work and are able to demonstrate that it’s all yours in case you should defend it at court. Take care not to use “elder” and “scrolls” in the same sentence anywhere and that’ll at least keep the Bethesduh off your ass.

It gets a bit trickier when you work with other people. When you hire artists, make it all clear in written form who is the owner of all the shit (for simplicity’s sake, you should own all the assets made by your team, be sure to clear this up with everybody). If you’re licensing stuff, save all the contracts and arrangements. Make them guarantee that they are developing their shit independently and that shit they produce does not infringe rights of any third parties in any way whatsoever.

It still pays to double-check on your artists from time to time if they aren’t stealing their assets from some website. Easiest way to do it is make them save incremental progress in separate files as you would do yourself. If the 3D artist magically conjures up a hipoly mesh out of nothing in under an hour, you might want to ask some questions.

 

[Aemar]

Strongest form of IP protection is probably putting: "Support game developers!, if you like it BUY IT!" somewhere visible.

Ahoy, matey!

It gets a bit trickier when you work with other people. When you hire artists, make it all clear in written form who is the owner of all the shit (for simplicity’s sake, you should own all the assets made by your team, be sure to clear this up with everybody). If you’re licensing stuff, save all the contracts and arrangements. Make them guarantee that they are developing their shit independently and that shit they produce does not infringe rights of any third parties in any way whatsoever.

It still pays to double-check on your artists from time to time if they aren’t stealing their assets from some website. Easiest way to do it is make them save incremental progress in separate files as you would do yourself. If the 3D artist magically conjures up a hipoly mesh out of nothing in under an hour, you might want to ask some questions.

Developing a video game entirely on my own will never happen, so I'll choose the option to hire additional people if I ever get to create my own product. Solid points regarding outsourcing and the necessity of having a bulletproof contract, I've been pondering a lot on them myself lately. As far as I can tell, these are likely the most important issues when dealing with people helping you with the project. Whatever parts of the project I get to outsource, everything they do has to legally belong to me, since I'm the one who commisioned them and paid them for their work. Equally important, everything they create also has to be made from scratch, to avoid copyright shenanigans.

 

[JarlFrank]

You can also file copyright for your work with official channels iirc, but that shouldn't be necessary.

Whenever someone else comes up and claims he owns your copyright, all you need to do is prove that:
- you devloped whatever the other guy claims is his (show older beta versions, concept art, design documents, etc, that you have but the other guy doesn't, best if they're timestamped)
- whatever work other people did on your game is legally owned by you (showing contracts should suffice there)

 

[JarlFrank]

Equally important, everything they create also has to be made from scratch, to avoid copyright shenanigans.

When you commission an artist or buy pre-made assets in an asset store, and can prove you bought/commissioned the item in good faith, and it turns out the item in question is plagiarized, the blame will be entirely upon the artist because he sold you the item under the assumption that it was his.

 

[Aemar]

You can also file copyright for your work with official channels iirc, but that shouldn't be necessary.

Whenever someone else comes up and claims he owns your copyright, all you need to do is prove that:
- you devloped whatever the other guy claims is his (show older beta versions, concept art, design documents, etc, that you have but the other guy doesn't, best if they're timestamped)
- whatever work other people did on your game is legally owned by you (showing contracts should suffice there)

I see. Time to start transfering in electronic format whatever concepts and ideas I have already written down on paper, in order for these files to count as design documents, the earliest materials related to my project. Still curious to know how many devs, especially indie devs, have a strategy in mind regarding the legal aspects of their work and everything else pertaining to copyrights, trademarks, etc.

It's all fucking annoying but it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

I agree that anything is possible, especially since I don't doubt there are shady characters out there that thrive on this kind of activities for monetary gains or even for giggles.

On a side note, I found this particular blog that offers some info on the topic:

https://strebecklaw.com/

 

[J1M]

TLDR: If you are working with anyone else in any way you need a contract with them. Lawyers will try to scare you by pretending they must write a custom totally new contract for each situation. That is false. You need a contract that applies to your situation that you can use over and over. If you don't register your copyright, you don't have protections until you start selling your product.

Bonus fact: You cannot copyright game rules. Only things like characters, art, setting, etc.

Here's some videos:

 

[Aemar]

Quite a few videos to watch, and they all seem to cover exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!