In my quest to start working on video games I came across a term I've heard a lot without fully understanding it, copyright. Copyright is slightly different to every discipline, from music to film and animations and it's the same with video games as well. When someone whether it be an individual, a small group or a giant company like EA or Ubisoft make a video game they own the rights to the entirety of the assets. Cindy Hill states in their article about copyright law,
Copyright law protects the entirety of the computer code that creates the game in the same manner as it protects the entirety of a novel. Copyright law also protects the music, dialogue, scene and setting images, and character images within the game. (Hill, Undated)
What does this mean for someone working in a large scale company I wondered? Does anything I make belong to me? Short answer is no. Assets created by employees of video game companies belong solely to said company. For example say I worked for Ubisoft and made an epic score or made a super memorable sound effect, this asset isn't mine even though it is technically my intellectual property. Sounds pretty mean right? In a way it is but it also makes things much simpler for big companies. Also it's not as if these people are slaves, they're being paid to make these assets for the company. Another interesting point is what happens when a person buys a version of the game how much control do they have over it? I wasn't really surprised when Hill mentioned in her article,
"When a company sells its video game to a player, it licenses that player to use the game within the terms that are set forth in the license. Because a video game is also a computer program, U.S. copyright law does allow purchasers to make backup copies of the game software for purposes of archiving and re-loading in event of a computer crash, according to the U.S. Copyright Office. Licenses to players may differ from game to game."
Honestly a player has very little control over the content they purchase. They can play it and depending on the game take screenshot and record sections of it though ever game may have different terms and legally binding consequences. An example of this is Nintendo. For a long time many youtube let's players were very upset with Nintendo's youtube policy as follows,
A YouTuber earns 60 percent of a cut from a normal YouTube video, with Google (YouTube’s parent company) taking 40 percent. As part of Nintendo’s Creators program, that same YouTuber is going to earn far less than normal as both Nintendo and Google each take a piece of the profit earned (70 percent for channels; 60 percent for videos). If YouTubers don’t join the program, they aren’t able to profit at all off the video, as all revenue from AdSense goes back to Nintendo. (Alexander, 2017) Article
The program this article is talking about is called the Nintendo Creators program which allows creative individuals to make small profits from Nintendo's property. This program comes with many many terms and conditions however and greatly limits creatives in the way they can represent Nintendo and if they break any of the conditions their video is demonetised and receives no income from advertisers. This is the kind of way that copyright not only affects employees but also players of video games.
In conclusion copyright is never something to be over looked. Whether I end up working for a company or myself copyright is something I should always be aware of so I can safely make video games without incurring some serious financial damage.
References:
Alexander, J. (2017). YouTubers are calling out Nintendo for its policy on streaming, uploads. [online] Polygon. Available at: https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/6/16612080/youtube-nintendo-super-mario-odyssey-demonetization [Accessed 29 Nov. 2018].
Hill, C. (n.d.). Copyright Laws & Video Games. [online] Info.legalzoom.com. Available at: https://info.legalzoom.com/copyright-laws-video-games-20305.html [Accessed 29 Nov. 2018].
Nintendo Creators Program. (2018). Nintendo Creators Program. [online] Available at: https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/guide/ [Accessed 29 Nov. 2018].
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