[MUD-Dev] Copyright Question for the Hobbyists

[Travis Casey]

Wednesday, August 30, 2000, 6:22:51 PM, Kristen L. Koster <koster at eden.com> wrote:

> How do you handle the issue of copyright ownership on contributions made to
> your hobbyist game? I'm thinking specifically area files and code as well as
> web and other documentation content here by unpaid staff.

> After doing some research on the topic I can see it several ways:

> 1) The game is a "joint work" and all contributors share in the copyright
> ownership of all contributions created to be part of the public version.

> This seems to hold better for a more continuously and cohesively designed
> world. This also seems to imply that the players have an interest as well,
> provided they can make content contributions to the game.

> 2) Contributors are independent contractors and as such copyright ownership
> remains with them?

> I'd say this would apply if they contributor received a one-time
> compensation for their contribution and no further expectations were held on
> either side. In other words, the contributor is not a member of the game's
> "staff".

> 3) Contributors are volunteer employees of the game, as such the game
> "entity" maintains the copyright on the work done.

> This seems to make the most sense to me. It provides for the least
> disruption of and the most stability in the continuity and structure of the
> game in the case of someone throwing a tantrum and wanting to take their
> toys and go home. 

> It also seems to me that by providing benefits, while not traditional by any
> means, such as disk space, email accounts as means of rumuneration to staff
> members and the idea that by being a staff member that their contributions
> would be "within the scope of his or her employment" and therefore
> considered "work for hire."

> Are there any precedents out there? How do you handle these issues? Are they
> real issues?

I know that Nightmare used #3 on your list -- or at least, so the docs
that used to be distributed with that mudlib said.  (They included
some of their docs on such issues to serve as models for other muds.)

On SWmud, we basically took Nightmare's agreement, which said
basically that "by accepting a position as a creator on this mud, you
agree that all code and data that you release into the game is jointly
owned by the administrators of the mud", and edited it to insert our
mud's name and staff instead of Nightmare's.

One thing to watch out for, from a legal point of view -- you have to
make sure that who/whatever is assigned copyright legally can hold a
copyright.  Thus, you can't assign copyright to "MyMud" unless "MyMud"
is actually incorporated, or unless you have previously in the
document defined "MyMud" to be short for a certain group of people.

Since it is a legal document, it would be best to list real names of
the mud administrators, and probably addresses too -- otherwise,
should someone actually take you to court, you might find it difficult
or impossible to prove that a particular mud name is such-and-such a
person, and was that person at the time the player agreed to the
agreement.

Beyond that, if you're really concerned, talk to a lawyer.  This isn't
a new problem -- non-profit corporations have been having people write
software, brochures, and other materials for them for years.  There's
probably good legal boilerplate for this sort of thing out there.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_    Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)   





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