How Do I CopyRight My Game
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/How Do I CopyRight My Game
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| Greetings Mortals, I am the mighty WERDNA, lord of darkness. Unfortunatly, despite my cosmic powers, I have no clue how to get my games copyrighted. I have completed several small games, and really need to know how to get them copyrighted so I can put them in the Blitz Show Case. Please respond as soon as possible, The Mighty WERDNA. |
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| erm, sorry to rain on your parade, but chwaga being the lord of light, is capable of destroying darkness. Light destroys dark, dark cannot destroy light, but exists only in the lack of light, which is unfortunate for you, because i dont lack. And, to avoid spamming: i've got no idea |
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| Copyright is automatic. |
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| Anything you make is automatically copyrighted. Check out the website of the US copyright office for all you'd ever care to know about copyright: http://www.copyright.gov For the most part, the only benefit of registering a copyright is that you have a certified statement that you created something at a specic date... But there are plenty of other ways to accomplish that as well. (Note: the 'mail-a-copy-to-yourself-in-a-sealed-envelope' deal is bogus -- after all, there is no way to proof that you didn't mail yourself an empty un-sealed envelope and filled & sealed it later) |
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| Thanks Guys, And I love your reponse chwaga. Your cool. |
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| My understanding of it is you do this (c) and you get a few legal rights to it. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so. |
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| You are wrong. There is no legal recognition of (c) as a copyright symbol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol This isn't to say that you don't get copyright; as others have noted, copyright is automatic. However, there are a few differences in what happens in court (additional damages mostly) if you sue over copyright infringement and your copyright is registered. |
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| In order to get your games officially copyrighted you have to send me 137.50 $ for each one and then... no wait, this was just a joke. Basicly, your work is your copyright. BUT you have to be able to show other people that something is your work. So you best tag it with a (c) Copyright by John Doe12, all rights reserved. Additionally, you have to add copy-protection to your (eg. DVD) releases, including the note "This DVD features piracy protection functionality" or "This product is copy protected". Only this will clearly forbid people to rip your product, at least in europe. It doesn't matter so much if the protection is unbreakable or not, but there must be an attempt. As well as (and probalby most essential) the note about it on the cover. |
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| <: / |
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| Greetings, Mortals. It is the mighty WERDNA again, with another question. What are the benifits, to getting your copyright registered?, and how much does it cost?. And thanks again guys, for being so helpful. |
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| Hello. It's me. We seriously need to talk. I'm not doing much at Microsoft at the moment and have a meeting with "Warren Spector" in February and a couple of ex Dreamworks people. Maybe you'd like to come? We'll be in Cambridge in some of the old Looking Glass haunts. Catch you later. |
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| Is "Warren Spector", replete with quotation marks, some sort of stand in? And, if so, is there a "Puki"? |
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| Well, if he is "Andrew Haydn Grant" - I'm looking at his street now and he'll know were Looking Glass Studios was. |
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| To reiterate what jhocking said - Writing "(C)" has no meaning whatsoever in terms of copyright. If you're going to use anything, use the proper symbol (ASCII #169). |
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| I'm not a fan of using symbols that aren't on the keyboard normally; depending on what exactly the text is for you may have issues with displaying such non-standard characters. I always just write out the entire word. "Copyright 2008" looks pretty professional to me. |
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| I'm not a fan of using symbols that aren't on the keyboard normally Why not?Hold down LEFT-ALT, then press keypad 0, 1, 6, 9. Its simple enough to do. All you have to do is make sure the character you're trying to use is included in your choice of font. |
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| All you have to do is make sure the character you're trying to use is included in your choice of font. But that's just it, I've had situations where the document doesn't look right on someone else's computer (when they view it on the web, or I emailed it to them, etc.) Similarly, this is an issue when I'm using a bitmap font and I don't want to take up space on the image for a character that will only be used once. Admittedly this crops up rarely and is not a big issue when it does happen, but still I prefer the method where I don't have to bother memorizing some bizarre key combination. |
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| I've run across jhocking's issue in the past -- I notice that print publications often use both the word and the symbol (which is a practise I adopted for my website), so that might be worth considering. I think (c) looks horribly unprofessional, though, and is to be avoided. |
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| Does posting: © 2007, Brian Sauer At the bottom of my website ensure that all content on the website, including downloads, is protected? Do I need some type of mark on the games themselves? All of them have "By: Brian Sauer" on the title screen but is this enough? |
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| NO, it is not. I believe that you have to send in your finished games, and 45$ to get them registered. Check out the official site, for copy right information at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html Good luck. The Mighty WERDNA(Lord of darkness\dorkness) |
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| Well it claims you have a copyright even if you do not register... putting the © 2008 (author name) ensures you have copyright protection... |
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| Note there are "Registered" and "Trademark" that are not the same as "Copyright". The 45$ thing sounds like a rip off, and the .GOV adress doesn't help too much. Basicly, the copyright is yours if you can provide evidence for your creation of the content. Most industrialised nations have signed the most important agreements relating to copyright (Bern Convention) and neighbouring rights (Rome Convention). To be able to prove your authorship you may also use a sealed envelope that you send to yourself, containing your content, keep it closed until you may have to open it under the eyes of a judge. Or use a number of persons who can verify you're the creator. Basicly you only have to convince the judge. |
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| Well, I have tons of files on my computer, a online worklog, written notes in a binder, and a lot of people that know I did it... I hope thats enough. (Note: the 'mail-a-copy-to-yourself-in-a-sealed-envelope' deal is bogus -- after all, there is no way to proof that you didn't mail yourself an empty un-sealed envelope and filled & sealed it later) I have heard that mailing it to yourself has held up in court, but xlsior makes a good point here. |
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| To be able to prove your authorship you may also use a sealed envelope that you send to yourself, containing your content, keep it closed until you may have to open it under the eyes of a judge. Completely pointless. After all, you can't proof that the envelope was actually sealed and filled at the time the datestamp says. The opposition can blow this one out of the water in seconds, and is a complete waste of time. |
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