Curruntly I''m working on an rpg with several people (we''ve got quite a big team right now). In order to take the projct further we want to work together with as many poeple as possible. We also want to present our idea to many people (also to people working in the game industry) in order to get advice. However we would like to make certain (or as certain as possible) that nobody can run off with our idea. That''s why I was wondering if it''s possible to secure the rights on the story and the characters of our game(and how that''s done). Does anyone know how this works in game design? This is also important should we get to a point where we think it''s possible to approach a publisher (which is naturally the goal of the project). Help would really be appreciated. Note This is not about trying to get rights in order to sell this idea to a developper or publisher. We know that there is no market for that (even if there was it wouldn''t be our intention since we ourself want to create this game).

Write everything down, photocopy it, and place a number of copys in sealed envelopes. Then mail them all to yourselves, or another trustworthy person and don''t open it. The documents now have an official date and proof of postage, plus they are sealed. Instant copyright!

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Original post by redstar1
Write everything down, photocopy it, and place a number of copys in sealed envelopes. Then mail them all to yourselves, or another trustworthy person and don''t open it. The documents now have an official date and proof of postage, plus they are sealed. Instant copyright!

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Actually, I''ve heard this is both unnecessary and ineffective.

Anything you write down is automatically copyrighted. Bear in mind however, that you can *only* copyright the implementation or a description of your idea, not the idea itself. So people can still ''steal'' your ideas, provided that they don''t actually plagiarise your design document/code/story.

In any case, I don''t think I''ve ever heard of anyone ''running off'' with someone elses idea in my life. Ideas are worth nothing without an implementation.

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Original post by redstar1
Then mail them all to yourselves, or another trustworthy person and don''t open it.

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That has no legal value, the post office will happily deliver an unsealed enveloppe. On the other hand, getting your documents notarized isn''t *that* expensive.

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“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.” — Brian W. Kernighan (C programming language co-inventor)

Easy answer. Draft up a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and have them sign it before showing anything to anyone.

While it does not copyright or trademark any of your works, it does (if worded properly) offer you protection from people you show your work to. The signee agrees that what you show them is confidential and they are not to either disclose your ideas and works to anyone else, nor use your ideas or works for their own purpose.

You can find a really vague NDA here as a sample:
http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=management&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessownersideacafe.com%2Fbizforms%2Fnondis2.html

I strongly recommend having a more detailed one drawn up. There are several online legal resources you can use, but I'd suggest paying a lawyer to do it. It's a fairly standard form and won't cost you much in billable hours, and for $100-200 bucks (depending on where you live and what the attorney charges) you'll feel a lot more secure in using it.

Additional: you can have different versions of an NDA - one for employees/potential employees, one for subcontractors, and one for potential investors. Once you have a standard version on file for yourself you can re-use it over and over.

[edited by - EricTrickster on February 10, 2004 1:30:47 PM]

I''m assuming you''ve already got the design document compeleted, and possibly have some of your game implemented. In that case, you''ve got at least a few months head start on anyone you show your work too. Don''t worry about someone stealing your work - they won''t. Making people sign NDAs, or jump thru a bunch of hoops just means that fewer people will bother looking at your game. Save that $200 dollars for when you get a publishing contract. Then pay a laywer to look over it and make sure your not getting the short end of the stick.

Bear in mind that you can never own a general story or general characters. You can only copyright the specifics. Ideas aren''t protectable under any law I''m familiar with.

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Thank you for all your help. We''re not really worried about people stealing our ideas (I''ve also never heard of something like that happening), but it''s better to care of these things now that we have the time for it.
When dead-lines are starting to draw nearer it''s easy to forget about things like this and then we won''t have the time to worry about it.
I''ll put some more research into NDA'' s and then we''ll decide what to do.

Thanks again.

I would suggest that you do get people to sign an NDA just as an indication that you are serious about what you do.

However a more important issue to consider is securing ownership of the game/content. When someone creates some code, audio or graphics for your game they own the copyright/other IP rights in that work, unless you have a contract with them that transfers those rights to you/your company. If everything goes well that wont be a problem but if someone drops out or is sacked from the project you could find you have to re-do all their work as they wont allow you to use it.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions (www.obscure.co.uk)
Game Development & Design consultant