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Copyright - things that you should know
29/08/09
Copyright - things that you should know
I received a lot of unhappy comments on my last article, and I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate on some issues that I brought up. My English is still Engrish, as a result some of the choices of words can take on extra meanings, and they had done that.
Under NO circumstance should anyone ever use intellectual property that they do not have permission to use.
If you will use stuff that do not belong to you for commercial purpose(getting income) - you can get negative reaction from author. Use your own assets if you going to stay in this market for long time.
If you're going to use stuff(music, art) that is copyrighted, that can result in that some portals and ads network will remove your game, if they will get "cease and desist letter". Or they can just not accept your submission, which is not cool. In theory you can be sued, but that was never happen before.
Gameplay cant be owned by anyone, licensed or patented, so game mechanics are free to re-produce.
Code is complex thing. As a rule, when big deals going, game and engine are divided to separate projects. Game goes as exclusive item, while engine is selling as non-exclusive license to use. That means developer can use engine for next projects, but art and branding are not. If you sell game with attached code to it - that can be a problem, if there is a lot of unique algorithms. Common code, shared code, code that simple - are not subject for court. For example - code from MathCad can be subject in court, while code for generic TD game - not.
What you should keep in mind when singing papers, there is default terms for USA - if you selling complex product, which involves programing - rights for code will be transferred to buyer.
plz comment it, i`d love to know if I missed any court case related small flash games, or any flash-browser games. Again, use your own assets if you going to stay in this market for long time.
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2 comments
Check out this article about the Simpson's: Road Rage lawsuit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Taxi_(series)#legalities
i agree that selling source code can get complicated. i posted an article today on one type of agreement you can sign in your contract:
http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog/2009/08/31/should-you-sell-your-source-code/
- Ryan
also, if game simple end own life - like having hosts more then 1k, being live for few months - another reason to sell sources.
and, if you wanna keep IP - just change name of game in sources and contract(if buyer agree to do that, and probably he will be happy for it). If you wanna re-use yoru code - just put one work to contract - non-exclusiv OR sentence developer should keep right to use code further.
so far i have sell like 70% of my games with sources, and some of games more then 5 times, for prices - 100$-5000$. Every time i keep right to re-use code and my IP. you should look and develop it in prospective that - Selling sources is Extra income. Just make it right =)
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