Non-traditional publishing ideas

KCAJ-

Before you send it out to anyone, place this notice on the board and box.

© (circle C) followed by the year of publication (or year of authorship if not published) followed by your name. This indicates the statutory copyright, that this embodiment is your work, not to be duplicated without express permission. Adding "All rights reserved" means you own every right to the game and can license the right to publish to anyone.

Then download a copyright form at the Library of Congress website. One of them will be right for regisatering your game. (I forget which-- I registered mine 20 years ago!) Today the cost is aorund US$20.00.

This becomes a REGISTERED copyright. If allowed (they usually are for works of art, which most games fall under) the embodiment-- not the IDEA-- is yours for your lifetime plus 50 years.

This is pretty effective protection form pilferage, because most game embodiments (consisting of board design, pieces, and rules for play taken as a distinct whole) have a great deal of original authorship in the features and art as part of game play.

In fact, some games (fewer and fewer these days) can be patented, for a special design, method or apparatus involved in game play. To get a patent will take many months and often years, involves at least a thousand dollars for the first filing, specially drafted drawings, and often many more $$ for appeals and the like as the patent examiner and your lawyer argue over the claims.

You get better bang for the buck by simply copyrighting your work. Talk to an Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer in your area-- they usually charge nothing for an assessment.

I emphasized the word IDEA because if your idea cna be separated form your design and used in a radically different design, you have no claim over it. Copyright protects physical embodiments of authorship, like recordings, sheet music, game rulebooks, and even assembled games as a whole. For complete accuracy, talk to a lawyer, I am not one.

As for market, Josh brings up a good one:

It's called the Premiums market, and inventors of all kinds thrive in it. Giveaway games, whistles, flashlights, key fobs-- interesting letter openers-- all Premiums, used as sales incentives and advertising devices. No readon why a small game can't become a great Premium.

A larger product becomes a Tie-in, with similar promotional value.

Wow, it's gone up again, has it? :-(

That's why we copyright our work. Fast, i think you're right-- the Circle C is used when you have registered. Doublecheck with an IP lawyer. Spell it out if unregistered. It has all the weight of registered protection except... it's not registered! One benefit of registration is... a record of registration claiming authorship.

Circle C is "fully covered by law," Fast. It is one of THREE correct forms. Use it often. There is some truth at the Myths page, but Brad Templeton isn't any more an IP lawyer than I am, he should know better. I say don't screw around with your hard-earned assets.

At one time(before 1989) Copyright registration notice (both styles are correct) WAS required on all copies of the embodied work. Today it is not. However, adding the notice is a NOBRAINER to designers. It adds the force of law by establishing public record of authorship. You can sue infinitely more easily if your art is infringed. You can prevent foreign importation of your copied work. No serious game publisher will accept your game for submission without a secured registration.

This is serious business! Ask Columbia Pictures/Sony about the devastating loss of Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which copyright lapsed accidentally. Anybody can package the original (NOT the colorized Turner version, which was negotiated) as a public domain work, although I think certain rights still carry due to performers heirs.

Let's get it from the horse's mouth, the Library of Congress, because all game designers are both authors and potential publishers:

Form of Notice for Visually Perceptible Copies
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The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all the following three elements:

1. The symbol © (the letter C in a circle), or the word "Copyright," or the abbreviation "Copr."; and

2. The year of first publication of the work. In the case of compilations or derivative works incorporating previously published material, the year date of first publication of the compilation or derivative work is sufficient. The year date may be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful article; and

3. The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner.

Example: © 2002 John Doe

The "C in a circle" notice is used only on "visually perceptible copies." Certain kinds of works--for example, musical, dramatic, and literary works--may be fixed not in "copies" but by means of sound in an audio recording. Since audio recordings such as audio tapes and phonograph disks are "phonorecords" and not "copies," the "C in a circle" notice is not used to indicate protection of the underlying musical, dramatic, or literary work that is recorded.

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I guess board games fall under "visually perceived copies."

That's right-- was that one of Templeton's 10 myths? Should have been. ;-)

Technically correct-- but it is a branch of the Library of Congress and accessible from the LOC page. Further, copies of your game will be available for inspection by qualified researchers visiting the Library, because they are stored there.

Rememeber the last shot of RAIDERS? I think it looks something like that. HUGE.

I certainly agree with that.