How To Judge Legal Risk When Making a Game Clone? 270
An anonymous reader writes "I'm an indie game developer making a clone of a rather obscure old game. Gameplay in my clone is very similar to the old game, and my clone even has a very similar name because I want to attract fans of the original. The original game has no trademark or software patent associated with it, and my clone isn't infringing on the original's copyright in any way (all the programming and artwork is original), but nevertheless I'm still worried about the possibility of running afoul of a look and feel lawsuit or something similar. How do I make sure I'm legally in the clear without hiring an expensive lawyer that my indie developer budget can't afford?"
Position wisely (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Let me present a third choice (Score:2, Interesting)
...a company like Atari (who? yes, they still exist!)...
Depends on who you mean by "they". If by "they" you mean the people who bought the rights to use the "Atari" trademark, yes, they exist. If you mean the company that made classic video games in the 80s, no, they're long gone...
Re:Assassinate the original owners (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The real question: WOULD they sue? (Score:1, Interesting)
The question can not be asked whether someone "can" sue
.. sure it does. If you pick the jurisdiction, you can select a jurisdiction where the claimant will have to put up a large bond to cover the legal expenses for the first 12 months.. a jurisdiction where these types of lawsuits are frowned upon and regularly thrown out of court.
You'll find that the vultures will go for your neighbour who happens to be incorporated in the US.
Re:The real question: WOULD they sue? (Score:3, Interesting)
And yet another question - do that corporation know that they have the right to that game?
Not every corporation does have track records that legally entitles them to the copyright of a certain piece of software written some 30 years ago. It may be that during some part of the process those rights were left out or that the purchase only was for the brand name etc.
Not everyone suing does hold the rights either.
There are multiple variations on a theme here. But if you do sell a look-alike that does have some modern or modified qualities in it it's hard to claim copyright on it. All adventure games do inherit from the original "The Cave".
And now it's the internet - so selling games from certain sales locations will make lawsuits trickier. You may even have a business model of free download and then sell services around the game instead.
Just go the way that will create the most headache for the holders of the rights to the original game for them to figure out if it's worth pursuing and how to do that. Distribute the responsibility for the game and the development of it into different legal entities so that you only have a facade company that takes the hit if something goes down the drain. Facade company owns the rights to the software, but every employee is in another to which all the money goes as "development costs", so if it goes really bad only the facade falls and the application rights may get voided.
Done right the risks are lowered.
Just make sure that it will cost more to investigate your businesses than what can be gained from pursuing a case against you and you can relax a bit.
Re:Laws have become horribly, horribly complex (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember: the difference between a "rip-off" and an "homage" is whether or not the other side has a goddamn sense of humor.
Re:Laws have become horribly, horribly complex (Score:2, Interesting)
Girls do exist on Slashdot, you know. In fact, I'd consider myself geekier than most guys. ;)
Re:Laws have become horribly, horribly complex (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't ask any permission. Just do it and have a good lawyer ready.
Good lawyers cost money.
The best lawyers will tell you to drop this idea before it costs you even more money - and time.