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[aamatniekss]

So, here's the thing. I've got a person, who would be willing to make music for my game and work together with me, and he only requires credit for it in the game. But how can we make this legal, so that if I release my game on Steam, for example, that he can't do anything to sue me and stuff like that. What kind of contracts or licenses are needed?

[StrayCatRock]

So, here's the thing. I've got a person, who would be willing to make music for my game and work together with me, and he only requires credit for it in the game. But how can we make this legal, so that if I release my game on Steam, for example, that he can't do anything to sue me and stuff like that. What kind of contracts or licenses are needed?

If you're going the commercial way (selling on steam) then the "yeah whatever" agreement is strongly not recommended. I would also advise against the creative commons agreement because it can have legal holes (both for you and the artist). So you have to do a licensing contract like you would do with a graphic artist even if he works for free so you're both covered legally and there wouldn't be any misunderstandings.

There are some templates on the net but here are some guidelines:

-Full name and adress of both parties
-Name of the items (tracks/songs/soundFX) involved in the contract
-Declaration of original work: where the author declares his/her work is original and that he owns all the legal rights.
-Exclusive or non-exclusive agreement?
-Use of the item: only one-end product? Which type of product? Commercial use or not?
-Derivative products: usable in a video trailer but not resellable or giftable as a soundtrack bonus for example.
-Restrictions on number of uses: after 1.000 units sold, the artist could get royalties for example.
-Lifetime of the license: 5 years? 10 years? Unlimited(till the death of contractor)?
-Territory: specify which country or worldwide.
-Terms&conditions: payment or free of charge or royalties. Also put a clause for eventual further disagreements.
-Date and signatures of both parties.

It may seem as an hassle and unwanted paperwork but it's good for you and the artist to cover your respective asses.

PS: as it seems he hasn't yet written tracks for your game, don't make him sign such a contract until all is done unless you really want to secure everything (flakes are a possibility if there is no money and legal ties involved).

[aamatniekss]

Hmm, I see, thank you! But I can't seem to find any of those templates, and im kinda new to all this, so it's kinda hard to make a new one just like that. With a template im sure I could handle it, could you maybe link me to one?

[StrayCatRock]

Hmm, I see, thank you! But I can't seem to find any of those templates, and im kinda new to all this, so it's kinda hard to make a new one just like that. With a template im sure I could handle it, could you maybe link me to one?

Here are some basic templates for client/freelancer contracts:
http://help.elance.com/hc/en-us/articles/203735913-Sample-Contract-Agreements

For artistic works, you can get some inspirations from the non-exclusive royalty-free libraries:
http://www.beatpick.com/public_files/beatpick_agreement_FACSIMILE.pdf
https://support.beatport.com/hc/en-us/articles/201046534-Beatport-Terms-and-Conditions#sounds

English is not my first language so I can't help for writing a proper official document. 

[LyndonHolland]

In my experience money would be exchanged for services in order to protect the integrity of the agreement. I'm not sure how legally binding a contract would be if the composer received no money. Even a token $1 would probably be better than $0. You would have a paper trail of money leading to said person, which would hold up if there was any discrepancy.

This isn't the question of the topic, but I think it's pertinent to the issue here. On an ethical level, if you have no upfront cash to pay him/her, then you should think about giving a percentage of royalties. There isn't a good reason for expecting someone to work for free if you expect to make money out of the product, and ultimately it harms the industry in the long run. I'm not meaning to stand-offish and I'm sure it's probably the composer that has suggested working for free in order to undercut competition, but as a developer I think you should insist on some sort of real return for your employees as a way of conducting fair business.

Of course working for free when there is no expectation of sales or reward is a different matter.

[bdsowers]

I can't stress this enough: getting your legal advice from a forum, no matter how well-intentioned the people, is not in your best interests. I'm already seeing some advice here that I find... suspect.

I know for indies, especially ones with limited finances, talking to a lawyer may be difficult. But it's really the route you want to take for legal questions.

[Sik]

Yeah, not to mention that giving legal advice if you aren't a lawyer can be illegal. Also: holy hell don't use a template, both of you hire a lawyers to draft a contract for you, seriously. Templates are used to avoid consulting lawyers which is a very good way to get both parties screwed.

I'm not meaning to stand-offish and I'm sure it's probably the composer that has suggested working for free in order to undercut competition

More likely that the composer is just a friend that offered to help, not even somebody doing it for business.

And if you can't guarantee a decent payment to the composer (and I don't mean shit like $25 per tune) then you really should wonder if you're in condition to even allow the composer in the project in the first place.

[StrayCatRock]

I dare to disagree with you two because keeping those kind of infos and guidelines hidden makes a business forum kind of pointless if knowledge is not shared....

Seeing the amount of posts in the paid work and portfolios sub-forums makes me wonder why there isn't yet a sticky post about guidelines, good practices and legal advices about freelance work and contracts 

I've already written regular work contracts (in French) when doing office job and I didn't need a lawyer for that as plain language is acceptable and as long as the guidelines are respected. If the OP was Belgian he would also need at least 18.500 euros to open a kind of LLC just to release a 5$ game if he was overly-careful. No wonder indie devs are starving at this rate

Back to OP (and to not waste a post):
My guidelines are taken from the 6th edition of "Music : The Business" by Ann Harrisson. I don't deal with freelance contracts but in your case (free of charge), it's a simple license issue. If like me, your local lawyers suck and are oblivious to international laws, you can get in touch with the book author here as she's a lawyer specialized in that stuff. I don't know how much it will cost you though 
http://www.annharrison.co.uk/index.php/what-we-do

[Kyle Preston]

As long as there is a legal contract (and nobody's pulling any tricks), it's fine.  You could use something as simple as Shake to do this.