Task 6 Contractual, Legal, Ethical and Professional

Task 6

Contractual, Legal, Ethical and Professional

Explain and illustrate the contractual, legal, ethical obligations and professional bodies within the games industry.

                                               Contractual Agreements

Employment Contracts:

An employment contract is used to set forth the terms of your employment; what the company expects you to do for the company and what the company will do for you in return. Employment contracts used for game companies are pretty much the same as the employment contracts at any other company.

The game industry employment contract is likely to include clauses about benefits, confidentiality, about inventions and about not competing with the company during or shortly after the term of employment.

Development Agreements:

Game publishers often hire game developers to create games for them. A development agreement is a contract that spells out the terms of the development deal with the developers the game publisher has hired.

The terms of the agreement spell out how much the publisher will pay the developer, what time frame the developer has to develop the game and if there will be royalties and what the royalty rate is.

It's important to clarify who claims ownership of the game whether it’s the publisher owns the IP (intellectual property) or the developer owns it.

Through a warranty; the developing company has to promise that it won't use anybody else's source code and the publishing company has to promise that it has the right to ask developer to create this particular game.

License Agreements:

When a publisher wants to make a game about a movie or a comic etc., the publisher and the IP owner execute a contract spelling out the terms of the license.

The contract spells out exactly what the publisher is getting the rights to use, essentially what’s being licenced to the publisher. The contract should also specify exactly what the licence can be used for, like whether the game will be made for a specific console or more than one, e.g. the Xbox and PlayStation 3 rather than one or the other. It could even say that it can be made for multiple platforms instead of just console.

The contract also needs to specify what parts of the world the publisher's game will be published in. although publishers always want worldwide rights, licensors often charge more for that. Usually the contract won’t run forever. Most license agreements run no more than 5 years.

NDA and Confidentiality Agreements:

Non-Disclosure Agreements, Disclosure Agreements and Confidentiality Agreements are pretty much the same thing. In order to do business with the other party, one party has to disclose a secret of some kind such as; a plan to make a particular game, a new technology or process for making games or a business deal that hasn't yet been publicly announced, and the party has to tell this secret to the other party. The other party agrees to keep this information confidential or else damage will be the result to the first party. In such an event, dire things will happen in a court of law to the second party.

Collaboration Agreements:

Collaboration contracts cover the most frequent types of contract in the mainstream game industry.  A lot of people are building indie games or hobby games, and for those people there needs to be an agreement that covers the all-important issues of ownership and compensation in the creation of games that exist outside of the mainstream industry.

The majority of hobby and indie projects fail, and a huge factor in those failures is who owns what, who's supposed to do what, and who's going to get what. A collaboration agreement sets forth in clear terms how the indie or hobby project is managed and controlled, as well as who owns the IP, how the game is intended to be used, how any possible income is to be handled and how termination of the project is to be governed.  

Legal Issues

Copyright; artistic or literary expression:

Copyright normally protects the work that was created by, or originated with, their author. There must have been some skill, labour or judgment in the creation of the work.

The first owner will normally be the author. In most cases, the author is the person who created the work: the composer of the text or the music, the artist, the photographer.

Copyright is different to other forms of IP. It is an automatic right you cannot register with the Intellectual Property Office; therefore there are no forms to complete and no fees to pay. Once created the copyright belongs to you, next you would need to create a record of your work in order to prove the date of creation and ownership.

Trademark; what you call it:

Trademarks are badges of origin. They distinguish the goods or services of one trader from another and can take many forms; words, slogans, logos, shapes, colours and sounds.

Trademarks are registered for specific goods or services within individual classes, of which there are 45 to choose from. It is possible for others to register identical or similar marks as long as it is in a different class. For example Swan rental cars, Swan matches and Swan Electricals.

Patent; how something works:

A patent for an invention is granted by government to the inventor, giving the inventor the right to stop others from making, using or selling the invention without their permission, for a limited period. When a patent is granted the invention becomes the property of the inventor, which like any other form of property or business asset can be bought, sold, rented or hired. Patents are territorial rights: a UK patent will only give the holder rights in the UK and rights to stop others from importing the patented products into the UK. 

Registered Designs; what it looks like:

Registered Designs are for the eye appeal of an object. They are applied for at The Intellectual Property Office. Britain also has a ‘Design Right’ providing automatic protection for 15 years from the date of creation, even when a registered design is not applied for. From August 1989, registered designs have a maximum of 25 years protection subject to renewal fees.

 

Ethical Issues

Violence:

It can be agreed that engaging in video games does have many ethical concerns. There are many games involving violent acts as well as other content related to violence. This could lead many people to believe that playing these types of video games can cause a person to be more violent after playing certain games. 

Ratings:

Ratings help the parents of young children pick the right game for their kids. Though, others are concerned that this rating system doesn't prevent people from acquiring video games that are considered to be inappropriate for their age.

The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system was established to help European parents make informed decisions when buying computer games. Launched in spring 2003, it replaced a number of national age rating systems with a single system now used throughout most of Europe. Major console manufacturers, like; Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, support this system, as do publishers and developers of interactive games around Europe. The age rating system was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE).

Education:

Through the education perspective, there are different things gaming can teach us, some are positive while others are negative.

Stereotyping:

Through stereotyping, the video game industry focuses towards men more than women, therefore, many people think it is stereotyping against women.

Addiction:

Through addiction and community, participating in an immense amount of time in video game play has caused people to be addicted to it. As a result, they lose valuable time within their communities and miss opportunities from other activities that could be more beneficial for them. This can also cause social problems when a player stops talking to others to play a video game.

 Professional Bodies

The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE):

The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment exists to champion the interests, needs and positive image of the videogames and interactive entertainment industry whose companies make up their membership and is the only trade body for the UK’s wider interactive entertainment industry.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA):

The International Game Developers Association is the largest non-profit membership organization serving individuals that create video games.

Women in Games Job (WIGJ):

Women in Games Jobs is a non-profit company that works to recruit more women into the games industry by promoting role models and giving encouragement and information to those women seeking to work in games. It also campaigns to make the games industry a more attractive field for women, both for new entrants and to retain women already working in the industry.

Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF):

Mobile Entertainment Forum is the global trade association for companies wishing to monetize their products & services via mobile. The organisation is headquartered in London with operational chapters and offices in Asia, EMEA, Latin America, Middle East, Africa and North America.

info from:
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/article58.httm

http://www.bl.uk/bipc/protideas/index.html

http://www.ethicapublishing.com/ethical/3CH12.pdf