This question concerns the game project i am developing , which is a TCG(Trading Card Game) game , i wanted to ask a legal question if anyone here knows the answer.
Probably i will pay an artist/s for TCG card art .what i wanted to ask is that , is there any thing i have to do to protect these art from being stolen ? i heard somewhere that once image is created its copyrighted to its artist or whomever he sold it to, or do i have to file a copyright file for each image in my cards ?
Epic can’t give you legal advice, but I can say generally that copyright law varies from country to country. In the US, a copyright in the original expression comes into existence automatically at the moment of creation. Still, many people and companies will file for copyright registration which gives the author access to additional remedies if someone steals the content. The copyright attaches to the author/artist unless there is a contract in place to grants it to another party (like an employer).
Thanks!! I needed to know this too…
Thanks Canon for your replay, and i know its not 100% legal advice(but your answer is what i require),
So if the image was created outside of US , US copyright laws will not apply ? , or is it that if someone stole it from US , then he will have to face US copyright laws?
If an image is created outside the US, US copyright laws generally would not apply. If someone in the US stole a copyrighted image from another country, you could probably still sue that person in the US based on international treaties, assuming the US had such a treaty with that country.