Hi! I’m thinking of copyrighting my game and I’ve got some questions. First question is - can I copyright it without registering it and what differences does it make. I know I can’t sue for infringement if it isn’t registered, but what else can’t I? Next question is - I’m only 13 right now (Yes, I can create games! Even much better than a lot of adults. Some people just discriminate young indies, what’s really annoying.), so who should I write copyright for? I mean, for example in the intro - should I write: Copyright {My Name Here} or: Copyright {My Parent(s) Name(s) Here} The last thing, that should actually be the first one is - what about Unreal Engine and copyrighting? Yeah, I know I should put some of long text in the credits, but do they let me copyright it? Or is it all copyrighted to them only? Thanks in advance everyone.
Copyright applies to anything you create, you don’t have to register anything though it could certainly help in a legal case but you’re still OK without registering. You can even sue without registering. So for example, say you make a bunch of drawings and put them up on your blog, you see someone is using them in a game, you own the copyright and can sue them even if you didn’t register them.
As far as Epic is concerned, you have to give credit to them for using the engine, but you own copyright on anything you create with it.
As darthviper said, it helps if you have a legal entity confirming your ownership of the content at an early time (to solve disputes of who owned it first), however with created products, copyright over it is implicit. It’s only if you issue a license, or created it under a contract which explicitly states that it becomes another person or companies intellectual property that it isn’t, otherwise it’s yours and protected for years after your death.
Ok, thanks everyone. However I have next question that (I guess) could match to the topic. There’s a movie called ‘Cube’. My problem is that I want to call my name ‘Cube: No Escape’ and same with 2 other parts (Cube: Something). Can I do so or do I break the copyright of the movie in any way.
I’m not a lawyer but there are hundreds of games with the word cube (check this http://cubeengine.com/) and it’s OK as long as your game is not inspired on the movie.
Cube is a common word and I don’t think is trademarked but who knows.
It is still possible to create confusion, it’s not as much of an issue across industries (film vs. video game) but it’s technically possible if they think that your game might confuse people. Probably not an issue unless your game is much like the film.
Ok, thanks, but how could I get sure? Should I contact them?
If your game is completely different from the film, then I doubt they’d have a case against you. It also doesn’t seem like it’s a big Hollywood production, so they likely don’t have the lawyers to even attempt it if it is not a clear case of infringement. You could call it “The Cube” and probably avoid it entirely. This sounds more like a question of Trademark law however, not copyright. And it doesn’t seem like anyone owns a trademark on “Cube”, likely because it is too generic.
Thank you everyone!
EULA SAYS:
SO…
You own all rights other than content and contributions.
Content created in Epic Engine is apparently owned by Epic ?
Contributions to the content created in Epic Engine is apparently owned by Epic ?
…How can we CopyLeft / CopyRight the content we created, if epic already owns said content and all contributions to it ?
No, Epic owns the copyright on their own content, meaning you can’t do anything with it other than what they have allowed.
Any of your own content that you create is yours.
As far as code, that’s only for situations like you fix an issue with the engine code on your own and decide to give the fix to Epic so that they can include the fix. They will then own it as a part of the engine. You can choose not to share a fix that you have if you wish and they won’t own it.
You could think about trademarking the title of your game.
From what I saw, if there is any copyright infrigment, the said company contacts you kindly first and explain the situation. So there isn’t like a “ROAR WE SUE YOU NAO” thing going on.
If that was the case, Hasbro would sue tons of people for creating content. They ask you to stop/remove your work first no matter what you do with their “My Lilttle Pony” characters, sue later if you don’t step back. 