作者：Dan Rogers

如今，电子游戏开发商们所专注的是开发一款互动游戏所需要的创造元素和技术元素，而他们的发行商所专注的则是如何处理销售，市场营销以及法律问题。但是在直接面向消费者的数字分销世界中，独立开发者却要两者兼顾。

他们创造了应用，然后通过苹果的App Store，Google Play，Steam和Xbox Live等平台去管理销售和市场营销。尽管所有的这些平台能为数千新兴游戏开发者们创造巨大的机遇，但是却很少有人意识到自己在发行一款游戏时需要承担怎样的法律风险——在过去这通常都是由发行合作者所面对的。

在这两部分的系列文章中，我将讨论应用开发者在数字市场上发行一款新游戏可能会犯的6大法律错误。（请点击此处阅读本文下篇）

错误1——无意中侵犯其它知识产权

IP Rights(from exxapatent)

几年前，一个独立开发商为一家顶级发行商创造了一款中等价位的赛车类游戏。游戏中所使用的汽车都是获得授权的，包括一款常见的美国跑车品牌。而这款游戏的问题就在于开发商在Route 66（从芝加哥到洛杉矶的高速公路，沿途是各种加油站，旅馆和独特的美国休息站）沿线创造了一栋独特的建筑。

开发方的美术人员是在网上搜索时发现了这栋建筑，并认为该建筑便是他们在寻找的东西。实际上他们并不想窃取该图像。相反地，他们创造了自己的内容去渲染它，然后将该资产设置在游戏中。孰不知，该建筑与现今许多建筑一样，是受到某一建筑版权的保护。所以在游戏发行后，他们的发行商便受到来自该版权保护者的公告，而他们也想办法即时解决了该问题。

在今天直接面向消费者的分销世界中，传统发行商通常都不再发挥作用，从而导致很多问题的出现。独立开发者总是未拥有足够的专业知识能够独自解决版权侵犯问题，并且不幸的是，侵犯别人的版权往往会遭致实际损失或法定赔偿（如果是故意侵权的话），通常是每件版权作品达750美元至15万美元不等，还要加上律师公费。不管怎样，不经许可便在电子游戏上使用别人的照片，歌曲，甚至是收版权保护的建筑设计等都会为你招致不必要的麻烦。

手机和社交游戏开发者常常因为忙于创造并发行他们的游戏而没时间去审查美术人员和程序员所使用的资产。但即使是无意的侵权也属于版权侵犯，所以开发者们必须在游戏最终发行前更加谨慎地对待所有资产和软件工具。通常他们会认为这并不是什么大问题，但事实上却绝非如此。

错误2——在侵权行为被发现前未能获得版权和商标

在2013年1月，苹果的App Store中已经有77万5千款应用，并且单在2012年，便有来自世界各地的用户下载了将近200亿的iOS应用。谷歌在Android平台上也取得了同样的成功，并且很多人相信Google Play商店将能在今年提供超过100万的应用。

有关版权侵犯的法定赔偿并不适用于非登记产品。实际上，这便意味着私自讲和的作用不存在了。现实情况是，证明实际损害不仅很困难，也很昂贵，抗辩者通常也了解这一情况。另一方面，当面对的是一件登记过的产品时，侵权人便更有可能意识到如果自己败诉，便需要为此支付法定赔偿和诉讼费用。

同样地，在美国专利和商标局注册一个商标具有很大的优势：

1.这让商标拥有者在被侵权时可以轻松第在联邦法院提起诉讼而无需证明自己的最小损害（这在今天需要花费7万5千美元）。对于大多数小型应用开发商来说，这便是一道巨大的障碍。

2.注册商标让拥有者在受到侵权时能够获得3倍的损害赔偿，再加上律师公费。在面对需要支付3倍实际赔偿费用时，侵权者便会乖乖第接受商标拥有者的需求。

3.注册商标还能让全世界注意到你的作品，从而打消潜在侵权人的歪主意。这也能帮你驱逐那些非法占用你的URL的人。

版权和商标注册并不复杂，但也算是一项学问。选择一位拥有相关知识的律师（特别是关于商标问题）能够提供给你有关商标利益的有价值的建议，并提示你可能会遇到的潜在问题。

错误3——未能与承包商签订适当的合同

我所知道的一个数字产品企业最近使用了一个设计团队去创造一系列图像布局，计划将其用于一款在线社交媒体产品的发行中。不幸的是，在支付给设计师大量的费用时，他们才发现这些设计并不适用。该企业便解雇了这些设计师，但是很快却收到了来自他们的一封信，即要求收回自己所创造的所有内容。于是这家企业便惊讶第发现，自己即使支付了费用却不能保证拥有这些权利。

该问题并不在于与承包商签下合同，而是在于许多应用开发商并未真正去使用这些合同，反倒完全依赖于电子邮件和电话去敲定合同协议条款。这是非常危险的做法。

基于美国的版权法，创造者对于作品（游戏邦注：不管是计算机代码，数字艺术，音乐还是游戏设计）的拥有权是从创造的时候开始生效，除非协议或环境（如雇员）有其它规定。同样地这些权利还受到IP传输或雇佣协议条款的保护。适当的合同协议所具有的另一大优势便是，它能在一开始便为所有人设定了期望值，从而帮助协议双方避免面对大起大落的结果。

对于企业来说，协议并不能清楚地描述有关IP所有权的内容，所以他们必须购买非专有许可证才能使用开发者的作品。然而这并不是他们所追求的，即在支付了一笔昂贵的法律诉讼费用后才能真正拥有自己最初通过购买所获得的独有权利。

总之，要像开发应用一样重视其中涉及的法律问题。

应用市场上存在着许多法律“地雷”，你总是很难把握自己会遇到什么问题。如今，应用是一项在全世界范围内迅速发展的业务，不管是资深的发行商，企业家还是“法律之鹰”们都在这里摸索着。不管你的公司拥有多大的规模，你都需要尽早留意应用的法律业务；这将帮助你在之后避免许多麻烦。

在下一篇文章中我们将讨论开发商会遇到的其它三个法律问题。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Six legal mistakes app developers make – part 1

by Dan Rogers

Until recently, video game developers generally focused on the creative and technical aspects of developing an interactive game, while their publishers handled issues of sales, marketing, and legal. But in the world of direct-to-consumer digital distribution, indies do both.

They build apps, and then manage sales and marketing through Apple’s App Store and Google Play, and inside environments like Steam and Xbox Live. While all this has created significant opportunities for thousands of emerging game developers, few realise the legal hazards they undertake when launching a game – risks that their former publishing partners often assumed on their behalf.

In this two-part series, we’ll discuss what I consider the top six legal mistakes app developers make when launching a new game in the digital marketplace.

Mistake #1 – Unintentionally Infringing Another’s IP Rights

Several years ago, an independent developer created a mid-priced racing game for a top publisher.  The automobiles used in the game were appropriately licenced, including a well-recognised American sports car brand. The mistake made, however, was in recreating a unique building found along Route 66, the iconic highway stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, filled with kitschy gas stations, motels, and unique Americana rest stops.

The developer’s artists discovered the building while searching the Internet, and they thought it visually representative of the look they were trying to achieve.  They didn’t intend to steal the image. Instead, they created their own digital rendering of it, and then placed that asset in the game. Unbeknownst to them, the building is protected by an architectural copyright, as many are these days.  After the game launched, their publisher received notice from the copyright owner, and promptly settled the dispute on behalf of everyone.

In today’s world of direct-to-consumer distribution, where traditional publishers are often out of the picture, things might not have gone as smoothly. Independent developers seldom have the expertise necessary to navigate delicate copyright infringement issues on their own, and unfortunately, infringing another’s copyright can result in either actual damages or statutory damages of $750 – $150,000 per copyrighted work, plus attorkney fees, if the infringement is willful. Regardless, using a photograph or song or even a copyrighted architectural design in a video game without permission can land you in hot water fast.

Mobile and social game developers are often so busy building and launching their games that they don’t take time to perform a proper due-diligence of the assets their artists and programmers use. But even innocent infringement is copyright infringement nonetheless, and developers should carefully clear all the assets and software tools used in their games prior to launch.  More often than not, it’s not conflicts they see that will get them, but the ones they don’t.

Mistake #2 – Failing to secure copyrights and trademarks before an infringement is discovered

In January 2013, Apple proudly announced that 775,000 apps were available in its hugely successful App Store, and in 2012 alone, nearly 20 billion iOS apps were downloaded by consumers around the world. Google’s success is similar on the Android platform, and many believe their Google Play store will be the first to offer over one million apps this year.

With more than 641 mobile apps being launched every day, copyright and trademark infringements are bound to occur. With the odds of a conflict only going up, prudent developers should secure their copyrights and trademarks before they discover an infringement. Delay doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t protect their intellectual property rights, but there are distinct advantages in registering early.

For one, the statutory damages for the copyright infringement are not available for non-registered works. As a practical matter, it means that a significant leverage in settling a dispute out of court (which most do, by the way) evaporates. The reality is that actual damages are difficult and expensive to prove, and opposing counsel probably knows this. On the other hand, when faced with a properly registered work, infringers are more likely to settle, recognising that if they lose they could end up paying both statutory damages and attorney fees as well.

Similarly, registering a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office offers powerful advantages:

1. It allows the trademark owner to bring suit in federal court without having to show minimum damages, which today is $75,000. For most small app developers, this could be a significant hurdle.

2. Registering a mark enables the owner, in some cases, to receive triple (called “treble”) damages, plus attorney fees. Faced with the prospect of paying three times actual damages, an offender is more likely to comply with a trademark owner’s demands.

3. Registering gives others nationwide notice of your mark, which could discourage potential infringers. It also may enable you oust cyber-squatters sitting on your Internet URL.

Copyright and trademark registration isn’t rocket science, but there is an art to it. Retaining a knowledgeable attorney – especially where trademarks are concerned – offers the protections mentioned above, and provides valuable advice regarding the overall strength of a mark and potential conflicts you might have.

Mistake #3 – Failing to use properly drafted contracts with contractors

A digital entrepreneur I know recently used a design team to create a series of artistic layouts that the entrepreneur planned to use in the launch of an on-line social media product. Unfortunately, after paying their designers a substantial amount of money, it became clear that things weren’t working out. The entrepreneur fired the designers, and shortly thereafter received a letter from them demanding a buy-out of the work they created.  The entrepreneur was surprised to learn that the money they paid didn’t secure the rights they assumed they owned.

The mistake was in not signing a properly drafted contractor agreement, but what’s surprising is that many app developers don’t use contracts at all, relying on email messages and phone conversations to finalise the terms of their contractor agreements.  That’s living dangerously.

Under US copyright law, the creator of a work – whether that work is computer code, digital art, music or a game design – owns that work from the moment of creation,  unless an agreement or other circumstances (an employee, for example) provide otherwise. Commonly, these rights are secured through an IP transfer or stipulation in a work-for-hire agreement. The added benefit of a well-built contractor agreement, by the way, is that it sets the expectations of everyone at the beginning, when it’s easiest to manage, often saving everyone a rollercoaster ride later on.

In the case of the entrepreneur, the agreement failed to properly articulate IP ownership rights, so, at most, they had purchased a non-exclusive licence to use the developers’ work. That wasn’t what they were looking for, and after an expensive bout of legal wrangling, they were finally able to secure the exclusive, worldwide, unfettered rights they thought they had purchased in the first place.

Treat your legal work as you do your development.

There are far too many legal landmines in the app marketplace to navigate these digital waters without knowing what you might encounter. Apps are a significant growth business worldwide, and sophisticated publishers, entrepreneurs, and legal eagles troll it closely. Regardless of your size, take care of your app’s legal business early on; it could save you major headaches later.

In the final installment of this two-part series, we’ll discuss three other legal mistakes app developers make: failing to properly incorporate, failing to create bulletproof partnership agreements, and failing to understand the legal implications of third-party investments.(source:develop-online)