Protecting your IP

kosmoski

Hi, I have a problem. I have been creating my game for some time now, but one thing worries me. The main character in my game will be played by an actress, which will drastically shorten my development time - but also expose me possibly to legal problems. I wonder if it's worth it at all.

Seeing how many character mods are created for the Resident Evil series, for example, makes me wonder why studios don't fight it. Or maybe they don't want to? After all, these are real people who don't necessarily want to participate in adult productions.

Is there any sensible way to protect yourself from modders? Or have any of you ever fought against sites like DeviantArt or Nexusmods?

Rima

What kind of legal problems do you think you're opening yourself up to by using an actress? Surely you'd offer them a contract that has them sign away the rights for you to use their likeness and performance, so it's not like they could come back to bite you unless you broke the deal somehow. And I'm no lawyer, but it doesn't sound like something sensible to think you'd be held responsible for what modders do. Those are unauthorised modifications to your work, after all.

You probably can't stop people from modding it, but there is an upside. If people are putting the effort in to mod your game in the first place, they're probably buying it. Depending on the kinds of mods, it can make people more interested in playing, too, or keep them playing for longer. That's more gameplay mods, though, whereas you seem to be thinking of porn mods?

I think the inconvenient reality is, if you put something out there, you're necessarily giving up control of how others respond to it and what they do with it. The only way to be sure nobody every tampers with it is to not release it. Which isn't ideal.

kosmoski

You are right, when it comes to releasing a product on the market - you have to say goodbye to it. I am totally aware of this, nevertheless it makes me wonder why it is not being fought for. I understand that getting to who creates porn videos and uploads them to pornhub is impossible. But sites like deviantart probably operate legally no? I wonder why they allow the misuse of models intended only for gaming on a console, for example.

Rima

Well, I don't think they care. It's like fanfiction; technically it's not allowed, but unless they're actually profiting from it or making something big enough to threaten your IP rights in places where it has to be aggressively maintained to be kept, rather than challenged to be taken, it's just more effort and expense than it's worth to go after them. They're small fry and time is money. And, to boot, it's just a bad look to go after tiny things like that. Makes you look like a bully, and at worst, can come off as hating the community who liked and supported your work. It's just not worth it.