possible collaboration There is an independent developer, who actually produces games, quiet a few, starting to take an interest in my work I contribute designs, ideas, art etc They want to see some art for a game idea i have in mind that could be a stand alone game or part of much larger crazy game If it takes off - and i realise that's a big if with the larger game theme, it could keep a small team of creative individuals, engaged for years, adding levels, characters, game play etc It's already agreed that i retain copyright to my characters, designs, the back story to the larger game etc .. not revealed yet and no need to at this stage so it's a licencing type thing. I understand they need to see some art, and some notes on the related sub level i'm working on but frankly the risk is all mine .. sending stuff off how do i protect my work ? any suggestions on best way to proceed ? thanks .
Can you not put some kind of stamp across the images like they do on stock photo? That way it will be very difficult to use them.
yes, can do that , anyone with some image software can remove if they want, with some work - its not just the images - its the package - the concept etc
well your vector art is so simple a watermark will do nothing.. i mean look at this bird of yours do you think this is a genuine design, never seen before and so full of creativity that its not copyable.. anyone with minor art skills could recreate such art.. so unless you can proove (in court) that your design is fully genuine.. there is not much you can do to stop other mimicking you.. or yourself mimicking others.. edit: at the end you might just ask yourself, why should they take your idea and not work with you.. you provide the art apparently and some ideas.. so if they skip you.. they need another artist etc. sound all trouble... i imagine you are quite young and new to the business world.. if people want to scam you they will.. there is nothing you can do about it.. you can sue them afterwards if you have the money.. but this is life.. sometimes you will be burned and sometimes you will have a great partnership.. thats part of it.. there is no gurantee of anything.. and you can't secure anything you can't also defend.. if you for example register a trademark you need to be able to defend it.. that means be able to pay expensive lawyers to fight people who infringe on your rights.. etc. etc. just relax and see how things turn out.. if they went bad.. well stop working with your partner and search for somebody else..
Mr Ugly thanks for the comments the helpful ones about the way the world really is as for your other comments, you have no eye for potential - and the beauty of simplicity but that's ok - everyone has a right to their opinion but importantly you have no right to copy an image from my website and post it in this forum without my permission .
Kii -- as my understanding of copyright law is, because the bird was posted here free of charge, in order to illustrate a point, and because the posting of the bird does not negatively impact your ability to profit from it in any way, it falls squarely under "fair use." In other words: no harm, no foul. (No pun intended.) As far as your collaboration, your images are copyrighted as soon as a copy of them exists virtually anywhere. The fact that they are on your hard drive, and on the internet, with easily accessible dates of creation, can prove your authorship in court. If the company you are seeking to collaborate with ends up using remarkably similar designs without your permission, you are protected by law, and you can work with a lawyer to serve them a cease-and-desist order which would forbid them from selling intellectual property which is likely to have been stolen from you. However, in the dog-eat-dog world of the app store, intellectual property is stolen on a daily basis. There is a very, very large number of games that, for instance, resemble Doodle Jump. It can be very difficult to take legal action when something like that happens... If the offending company is in another country, that complicates matters quite a bit. Or the offending company could simply re-release the "stolen" IP under a different title... The list of potential problems goes on and on. If you are 100% convinced that you are sitting on the next multi-million dollar idea, wait. Save up some cash. See if your friends and relatives are willing to throw a little bit of money into the pot to help you have it made. Then hire a programmer of your own for minimal risk. If you are convinced that your design is wonderful, but you have a half-dozen equally wonderful designs sitting on the shelf, consider just taking the risk!There is a good chance that your collaboration will simply fail -- compared to that, the odds of your idea getting ripped off are pretty much negligible. Nevertheless, you might learn a few things that will help you make your next project a successful one. Hope that helps.
Thanks Revolving Door your comments have been enlightening on a number of points, and i appreciate your time to write it k. .
A great idea is only worth something if you have the ability to execute it. Even then, if you have that ability, you also need to have the drive and motivation to see it through until the end. I love ideas, but I personally think they are worthless on their own. I believe true talent in this world is the ability to take great ideas and translate them into a tangible, consumable form. This is why I hate software patents.. but that's a topic for another day... If you don't take a chance with your potential collaborators, you might never get to execute. So then what is your idea worth?
e2elan yes all are important to start with - a good beginner idea developed into a concept ( a series of linked ideas ) that provide the vision and a direction to go in then the follow up the tenacity to stay with it excellent execution all are important a good idea can become a very good idea with excellent execution an ordinary idea might become ok a poor idea - well why bother .
I really do hate this tho, it shouldn't happen... Thus far I've had legal threats being used as scare tactics, people falsely stating numbers and click-thru rates to get me to sign-up, people just charging far in excess of that their service is worth and trying to justify it with lies... I don't know; I try to have a quite high level of integrity when it comes to business and when someone tries to screw me I kick back quite hard with lawyers... Short term, yeah being a **** can make you some money, but it kills your reputation and just gets a lot of people hating you, which will cause re-procusions... If an advertiser scams me out of $500 by lying about their numbers then I'll never use them again, if I receive good results and trust the person/ company and their business integrity I'll pump in $10k without too much of a problem and heavily recommend them to folks (I think with the PR company I used I generated in excess of 15 new customers for them, as they did a good job)! Anyways <end of bitter rant>... I just don't like having to spend the day with my lawyer dealing with annoying individuals when I could be improving my products...
that is actualy not true because its a generalization.. every country has its own copyright laws and most are very strict about and what can be copyrighted or not.. you don't hold automatically copyright to everything you create.. thats a total missconcept.. since you will sue them for using your art you need to proof your accusation.. not their yours.. and if someone believes a digital date on a digital document is worth anything.. should think twice about it.. i can easily make today an copy of the exact bird and let the files show a creation date of 1920.. so what proofs that.. nothing at all.. since thoose aspects are easily tempered with.. thats the reason people register their logos, trademarks etc. so they have a solid ground to enforce the law this is as illusionary as other comments before be k!!... being right does not mean become right.. you have to enforce the law by using measures at your disposal.. for example an lawyer.. all this cost money. if you don't have money to defend yourself.. your just ****ed, even if you are right. If someone scams you and he is in a stonger position he can keep you years in court, you become bankrupt and their laugh their asses off.. being able to enforce law is the most important aspect about law.. being right doesnt get you anything.. and even winning in court doest get you anything.. i have 2 titles with some nice numbers attached to them but i will never see the money, because the sued companies went bankrupt.. and i'm just one of alot of people they own money too.. so be carefully to paint pink paint on the wall of justice and call it easy peasy. enforcing your rights will cost you alot of money, nerves and time.. so have fun doing that.. i had my share.. i fully agree here the chances that a project never gets released is ALOT! higher than the chances somebody will steal your genuine design.
You know, copyright is almost impossible to enforce unless you have a lot of money and time. It really all comes down to how you feel about this guy. Do you think is he is going to rip you off, or do you have a good feeling about him and the project? Listen to your gut feeling.
You know i think i'm going to start moving ahead with this, create some movement in the land and try and get it right as i go but this thread has been useful - a good reality check I agree with Mr Ugly 100% on one thing the law only works for you if you can pay for it - no matter just your cause. I know that is true because i've experienced it. fortunately at the time, i could pay for it. .
When I started to read your post, I thought it was a poem at first by the way you formatted it. Lots of extra line breaks where they otherwise are not needed, and a few words that happen to rhyme (not that all poetry has to rhyme). Do you write that way on purpose? Just curious.
I HATE PEOPLE WHO WRITE IN ALL CAPS. BUGS THE **** OUT OF ME. Now back to topic, sooner or later your going to have to trust someone. I know nothing bout business though, so do what you feel is right
I've noticed this too. One day, I'm going to run all of kii's posts through xtranormal and then autotune them.
Formating ? justahabitivedevelopedovertheyearsanddonteventakeanynoticeofitanymore every now and then someone mentions it and asks what the **** are you doing then i remember im just eccentric i guess. its an aesthetic thing mostly .. pauses .. stops .. here comes the next idea .. ok ill shut up! there was ............a movement ............................some time ago ...............................................called .......................................................concrete ...................................................................poetry you play with the spaces on the page .
