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[Kinmoku]

Hi guys,

I'm approaching the alpha of my game and I'm wondering what the heck I do about NDA's, revenue shares and copyright? I'm wondering if any other UK indies could help me out here? Obviously I need a solicitor, unless there is a way to wing it?

I'd like the NDA's for my sound engineers and QA testers. Revenue share is something I discussed with my sound engineers (there's 2 guys) but I'd like to make this official so it doesn't bite me in the ass in a year or so.

I guess copyright isn't too important right now (my game doesn't even have a final name) but it would be good to get some info.

Any contacts you guys have used would be super useful I don't have a clue on legalities!

Thanks

[knifeySpoonie]

NDA's are easy you can get a fairly good one and modify it slightly to fit your business and what you want to cover etc. Just search for good templates

Rev shares are a bit more complex, you need a good contract that covers you and them, it needs to be beneficial and clearly worded etc. Getting a lawyer can be expensive though... very expensive... so if you can create a basic document that covers most of this yourself it will save you a lot of money... But it's obviously more risky, but then if your a good team and open with one another it's less risky..

Copyright needs to be clear, if you are "licencing" the music off the sound guys it needs to be clear that they own the copyright but you have use of it for the product royalty free (basically covered by their % in rev share). If they are doing bespoke work for the project and you intend to own the copyright this would likely be more complex and should be more expensive etc it depends on the deal you decide to make.

[Kinmoku]

Hmm, ok. Thanks for the help! For the NDA's I will use a template. Still unsure what to do for the rev share though. I trust one of the guys with my life but I don't know much about the other one. Perhaps I'll be able to get by without a lawyer for now.