Copyright

Hi everyone,
Okay, I need help. Blox's final release is almost done (one alteration left) and I was wondering what you suggest I do to get it Lisenced & Copyrighted.

License wise, write an EULA... There was a generic EULA generator kicking about, but I sadly cannot find it.

Copyright wise (a little info I dug up); http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/copyright/index.html

You could google for a bit more info, or see a lawyer for real legal advice.

Dabz

I didn't think you where old enough to enter into a legal agreement?!?

I think... copyright (in the UK anyways) involves taking a copy of your software, mailing it to yourself and don't open it. Then you've got a timestamped (the postmark) thingy for use in legal proceedings - if it's unopened.

I looked into patenting software a while ago , only in the US of A , not in the U of K.

A patent will cost you $12,000-14,000, at least around here.

Feck to quote father jack (any father ted FANS?). The patent clerks either get paid a lot in your neck of the woods, or their lords and masters are as well off as the government in Turkemenistan. Heard it cost the equivalent of $2 or £1 for 70 litres of fuel there....

@Leadwerks: a patent must be also renewed every year?

BlitzPlotter: mailing yourself an envelope proves nothing. All it shows is that you dropped an envelope in the mail, but what is to say that it wasn't unsealed and empty when you mailed it?

All it proves is that there was an envelope in the mail -- nothing more, nothing less.
Publishing some info on the internet (where it will be picked up and archived pretty much automatically by archive.org and the likes. that can prove a lot more than an empty envelope ever will

fair point xslior, you live and learn. I pursued patenting something in the past and the cost was prohibitive, your slant on things is interesting.

in the US, (most countries are similar because global effort was put in place, I think in the 80's) copyright is assumed upon publication(put in any fixed medium) but you really should declare it with "copyright 2007". to dispute prior art claims you should register it at any town hall.

remember, not everything is copyrightable, especially in games. Your code for sure is but the game concept/idea rarely is. look and feel is, but that can be hard to claim and protect. all the media certainly is protectable. And of course, whatever you claim copyright to must be original by you.

make sure you check the laws for the country of publication.

patents do not need to be renewed... they are good for 20 years unless an extension (very rare) is given.

[edit] well, just check patents... they do seem to need to be renewed in most countries. in the US renewal is due at the 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 year

Okay, so it really shouldn't be a problem. Thanks everyone, that helps a lot! One more question; anyone know a good distributor site to sell the game from? Preferably royalty-free? Or do you recommend I establish my own site & get a PayPal account?

Why would a good distributor who has spent countless thousands ( or hundreds of thousands if you mean a big one ) of pounds building up traffic give it all away for free? Your game costs them bandwidth, advertising, promotion, potentially dilutes their existing sales, and they're going to do that for nothing?

Expect to pay between 50% and 70% royalties for a good distributor with a lot of traffic.

you may patent it butt.

U will never get a diamd from big companys that copy your software rutines or ideas... thats life :/

And keep in mind: Even though they may 'only' give you 30%, they can make you a *lot* more money than you can on your own, since they have an established presence and can often show your game to hundreds of thousands of visitors.
On your own side you may get to keep 100%, but unless you put in an insane amount of effort, you've have thousands of times less visitors than the large distributors can generate.

Yeah, xlsior, I thought as much. Royalties weren't unexpected; it was just a shot in the dark. So, any suggestions anyone?