quote: Original post by __ODIN__
Simple solution; write up the design draft (or document). Put it in a sealed envelope. Mail it to yourself. Problem solved.

Speaking for U.S. law....no, no, no, no, NO! If I had a nickel for every time....

The post office will be just as happy to take your money and deliver you back an empty, unsealed envelope. The ONLY guaranteed way to provide proof of date for ANYTHING is to either get it certified by a notary public or (this is probably just as good) register a copyright/trademark/patent (whichever is applicable) with the government.

quote: f you have good evidence, the lawyer will most likely advise their client that they''re unlikely to win this battle, and pull out..

I dont know. It seems a lot of lawyers are just as happy to charge their $300/hour or whatever anyway.

Odin, that doesn't work, nor would it stand in court. It is simple to mail yourself an unsealed envelope, and then put information in it after receiving it and sealing it at a later date. Courts and lawyers know this.

Chronos, you're being paranoid. No one is going to sue you for an idea. As long as your implementation is different, it will be fine.

--OctDev

[edited by - OctDev on May 29, 2002 9:59:09 PM]

In general its alright, but a lot of poeple have gotten in trouble (especially with hasbro) for making the clone too similar. Even so, you can be 100% in the right, but if a multi-million dollar corporations wants to drag you through court over it, do you have the time and money to defend yourself? Are you willing to risk your car, your house, and the shirt off your back? Because thats what it could cost to defend yourself (and still with no guarantee that you will win...remember, courts do make stupid decisions occasionally).


Just to be clear, though, I'm not saying I'd be that worried about this happening, just that it is wise to take a little bit of precaution on everything. Mostly worry about getting it done though.

[edited by - LordKronos on May 30, 2002 9:27:11 PM]

Hmm. Yeah, I suppose the empty envelope would be a problem =)

There''s an interesting article here :
http://www.gamasutra.com/gdc2002/features/rubin/rubin_02.htm

"
Procedure
Copyright protection exists for any qualifying work without formal action. It is unnecessary to obtain a copyright registration from the Library of Congress in order to claim copyright protection. However, suit to enforce the copyright may not be brought until the copyright is registered. Moreover, the remedies of statutory damages (no less that $500 nor more than $20,000 for each violation as the court determines is just) and attorneys'' fees are only available for infringement occurring after registration. Only injunctive relief and actual damages are available for infringement occurring before registration. Registration requires completion of a copyright registration form along with the registration fee (currently $30) and two
copies of the work. "

Having said that; I think most of us are of the opinion that
1) You probably can''t enforce it .
2) Concentrate on finishing the game
3) Noone''s going to sue you unless you do something like PatMan, or Tutris. If there''s a significant similarity in name + content. In which case, you''re infringing trademark, which is a lot easier to handle..

Allan

Remember, this is why Apple lost their battle against Microsoft. Even though the look and feel were very similar, the underlying code is quite different, and there was no trademark/copyright infringement.

Maxis will not waste their time chasing you, even if they could. Your game will need to come to fruition and even become a threat (i.e. climb the sales charts) for them to take notice.

BS-r;

It doesn''t really need to climb the charts for someone to take notice; Hasbro came down hard on several small Tetris and other classic game shareware manufacturers..

Mind you, they were quite flagrently plagerizing some classic games, without changing the name or the gameplay..

Allan