In the creator economy, unscripted entertainment and video game production, chain of title is everything. If a producer or studio cannot show it has the rights it needs in the footage, performance, voice, name, and likeness appearing in a project, that lack of rights can derail distribution, financing, insurance, or an acquisition. Publicity and appearance …
Signing Your Life Away: The Wild West of Publicity Releases Read More »
Making a game is both a creative and a business process. With that comes legal considerations that can shape a game project from its earliest concept through post-launch support. For many developers, legal issues appear in stages. A team starts with an idea, brings in collaborators, creates assets, tests the build, prepares for release, and …
A development or publishing agreement can look like a lifeline right up until it isn’t. Studios of every size have signed deals that seemed reasonable at the time, only to find themselves on the wrong end of a termination clause that wiped out their runway, stripped them of rights to work they spent years building …
Starting a business has never been more accessible and at the same time, never more complicated. Between global audiences and new tools that let creators and founders move faster than ever, it’s easier to build something real. Because of that, making sure that the fundamentals don’t get skipped is also more crucial than ever. This …
Introducing the 10-Step Quick Start Guide for New Businesses Read More »
When I studied Spanish translation in college, Google translate was in its infancy and only provided the roughest of translations. My tools were primarily dictionaries and thesauruses, internet searches, example texts, and my own knowledge of Spanish and English. Within the last year, however, I took a Spanish short story, ran it through a machine …
AI Tools in Legal Work: Good Help Still Needs a Lawyer Read More »
Something is shifting in the Roblox ecosystem. Off the back of the commercial success of “Grow a Garden” and “Steal a Brainrot,” each of which began as a hit Roblox game and grew to see significant success beyond Roblox, more and more interested parties are beginning to explore acquiring Roblox games and trying to grow …
How to Prepare Your Roblox Game for a Sale or Investment Round Read More »
A lot goes into creating and selling a physical product. The product and packaging has to be designed. Then the product needs to be manufactured (and maybe marketed). Finally, the product needs to be shipped and distributed to customers. Sometimes, a third-party merchandise company will handle the process. Other times, a developer or creator (who …
Hidden Legal Risks When Dealing with Physical Games and Merchandise Read More »
What Creators Can Do Now to Protect Against Deepfakes Imagine a creator waking up to find fans tagging them in a video. They click on the link and the video pops up. There, they see an AI-generated double, wearing their face and hawking a cryptocurrency scam, in their voice, with their cadence. Somewhere else, a …
A Creator’s Face, Voice, and Brand: AI Is Coming for All Three Read More »
There’s a common assumption in game development that “legal” lives somewhere off to the side of production. In practice, the legal risk profile of a game is often a mirror of its production discipline. When milestones slip, scope drifts, roles blur or documentation disappears, companies can be exposed on multiple fronts. Production risk and legal …
In game publishing, and especially in game publishing agreements, clawbacks are safety valves that can keep intellectual property from being locked away and lost to history. What Is a Clawback in Licensing? In the world of intellectual property licensing, a “clawback” refers to a contractual mechanism that allows a party to take back rights or …
Don’t Lose Your Game Forever: How Clawbacks Can Help Preserve Rights in Publishing Deals Read More »