Potential Pitfalls with Using Purchasable Virtual Currency in Your Game

Virtual Currency: A Primer on Pitfalls With the upswing in mainstream recognition of virtual currencies, more people are becoming aware of its application in the real world. However, games have been offering in-app purchases for virtual currency (or other items) for ages. [one_half][/one_half] [one_half_last][/one_half_last] Licensing vs Ownership Rights There are several potential pitfalls that can […]

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Why Register a Trademark When You Just Offer Services And/Or You’re Just a Nobody?

I was recently talking with a friend about a situation that is likely all too common: a small-time development company picked a name for themselves and received a cease & desist letter for the use of their company name once they started getting some publicity. This post explores a hypothetical situation and options you could have if […]

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Working with Others on Your Game – The Risky Business of Being in a Partnership vs a LLC

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If you are working (or worked) on a game with one or more people, with the intent to earn money from it (at some point), you might already be in a partnership, which can carry some serious financial risk to you if things go really well (or really poorly). Creating partnership agreements (documents outlining the […]

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Privacy Policies, Terms of Service & EULAs – Oh My!

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If you intend to release your game on an app store, provide content to users, or collect data from users on your site, you’re going to run into the need for at least two of the three policies above, if not all three. Do you know what they do or how they differ? If you […]

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Where To Find Affordable Legal Assistance—And No, I Don’t Mean Legal Zoom

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As a developer, newbie or otherwise, you’ll eventually get to the point where you realize you want to release your game in some way or another. At that point in time, if not much–MUCH–sooner, you’re hopefully going to consider whether you need some sort of legal documents or protections in place before you go full […]

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Fair Use In Video Games – Part 2: Fair Use by Users and Devs

Welcome to Part 2! My heart sings with…actually, my voice is bad enough, you don’t need to know how my heart sings, knowing you’ve returned for more torture.   Fair Use By Game Users What is most often copied by users is either gameplay footage or characters/storylines, rather than making other games with copyrighted content. […]

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Should You Register with the Writer’s Guild of America West or the Copyright Office?

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First things first: the WGA is an integral organization to film and television production, and serves a highly important function to the industry. This post is not a criticism of the WGA, but more so of the myth I encountered in film school that we didn’t really need to bother registering with the copyright office, since registering […]

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