Whether you are a beginner or already a fairly experienced developer, the issue of intellectual property protection will always be relevant for you. Although, it is for beginners that the issue of copyright will be more important. This is because copyright objects appear when creating a game, and also constitute the main result of the work from a legal point of view. We will tell you more about it below.
Let’s take a closer look at what the results of intellectual activity are. These are any results that are outwardly expressive and creative. The result of intellectual activity is called works of art, literature. To be more precise, they mean various objects from texts up to design, or illustrations to text. By the way, copyright does not apply to: idea, concept, principle, system, etc. It follows from this that the game mechanics are not protected by copyright.
PC games familiar to us are considered as “computer programs”. In general, there are several versions of the game presentation. On the one hand, it is a complex product, including multimedia. But, even if the game is considered a program for a computer, it will still entail the processing of other objects. We can say that from a legal point of view, a computer game combines several results of intellectual property into one object of copyright.
Who is the author of the game? In the process of its creation, more than one person takes part. The author is the one whose creative work it was created. In this case, until proven otherwise, the author is the one who is indicated as the author in the information describing the work. But we emphasize that an indication of the author, for example, next to the copyright icon, has only such a meaning, and in itself is not required for the recognition of the author.
It is worth noting that moral rights are sometimes forgotten about intellectual property treaties. It may turn out that the company begins to use the work, the exclusive right to which was obtained properly, but without specifying the name of a specific author.
Actually, examples of disputes among developers that someone did not indicate someone in the credits are known. In such cases, the “injured” party has the right to demand recognition of its own rights and compensation for harm. Unlike cases of infringement of exclusive rights, this is unlikely to lead to serious legal problems, but it will be unpleasant.
