The article from Syfy.com details the vast market of counterfeit “geek” goods and the legal and ethical issues they present. Here is an excerpt: “True counterfeit merchandise is almost certainly actionable. That said, with a company the size of Disney, with properties as numerous and popular as Disney’s, it’s probably impractical to police literally every …
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Congratulations! You’ve received your first video game from a developer or publisher as a gift and your review has been requested (or paid for). Do you have to tell your audience the behind-the-scenes details? Let’s take a step back here. Defining an influencer An influencer is a person who may be a celebrity or, even …
Do I have to tell my audience if I’ve received a game and then reviewed it? Read More »
The article from Search Engine Land focuses on the practice of exchanging positive reviews. These reviews, it should be noted, are fake and should not be trusted. I’ve seen this scenario myself: a lawyer posts on some legal community forum that they would like additional reviews for their services on Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc. Another …
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“Subsidiary rights” usually refer to the right to exploit the book in other media. Pretty much any use of the book other than to sell copies of the book is a subsidiary right. Some lawyers would call these “derivative works” but in the literary world, they are subsidiary rights. Some examples include: Serial rights. This …
What are subsidiary rights in a literary publishing agreement? Read More »
Generally speaking, a media perils insurance policy protects the policyholder from lawsuits for libel and various intellectual property infringement claims. If the holder of the policy is sued for a covered claim, the insurance company would pay legal expenses to defend against the lawsuit and also pay any monetary damages or settlements related to the claim. …
The article gives a great overview of the recent “do loot boxes = gambling?” debate. The debate was largely brought into the mainstream by Hawaii state representative Chris Lee, who posted a video on YouTube calling for regulation of the industry and lootboxes specifically. Here is an excerpt on my views: Ultimately, Huffman urged caution. “We need to be careful …
Brandon J. Huffman quoted on loot boxes and gambling in Mashable Read More »
This is an excerpt from the free ebook, Key Provisions in Video Game Publishing Agreements. In the marketing provisions [of a video game publishing agreement], there are three main questions to answer. Who has responsibility for marketing? Who has the right to market? Who has creative input in the marketing? The agreement should explicitly say …
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In a previous post, I wrote about what an “advance” is. In short, it is a payment up front that is an advance against the future revenue streams for a book. What is a “good” advance? A cynical answer to this might be “any advance is a good advance.” That is a reflection of the …
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In the free ebook, Key Provisions in Video Game Publishing Agreements, I write about a lot of different rights and responsibilities a publishing agreement might cover. But happens when the relationship between a developer and a publisher really just needs to end? Ideally, the termination provisions of the contract will set out exactly how that …
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From the horse’s mouth: The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is the non-profit, self-regulatory body that assigns ratings for video games and apps… The ESRB has been around since 1994, and it is, in short, a self-regulatory body. It works like the MPAA for film or the RIAA for music, assigning ratings to games as …