Register your copyright or you cannot sue for infringement in the US

[Mouse]

Sorry Aeshnidae!

[aeshnidae]

Sorry, all, for some reason I didn't get a notification about more posts on this thread until this morning! I will edit the original post to make it clear that foreign works don't need to worry about this because foreign works are protected by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. I think even if a non-US citizen wanted to sue in US court for copyright infringement, you would not first have to register with the US Copyright Office because US courts will look to the Berne Convention and apply that in lieu of US copyright law.

[Adfor]

Just saw this, I'll have to make sure to get this done, thanks so much for the info, aeshnidae!

[Galendae]

Now a bigger problem; How to make something so awesome and valuable that they would want to steal it.

[Voolf]

Sorry, all, for some reason I didn't get a notification about more posts on this thread until this morning! I will edit the original post to make it clear that foreign works don't need to worry about this because foreign works are protected by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. I think even if a non-US citizen wanted to sue in US court for copyright infringement, you would not first have to register with the US Copyright Office because US courts will look to the Berne Convention and apply that in lieu of US copyright law.

Thanks for confirming that..... but what have you done... Our precious Mouse is borken ;(

Now a bigger problem; How to make something so awesome and valuable that they would want to steal it.

You put your heart into something you do?

[Mark Oliva]

It seems to me that this thread - interesting as it is - is pretty moot from a practical point of view. Very few members of this guild are able financially to finance a copyright violation process before a court anywhere. Most people here are limited to C&Ds and removal actions with IPs, etc.

[Mouse]

Thanks for confirming that..... but what have you done... Our precious Mouse is borken ;(

Not broken, Voolf

If I seem quiet its because I am currently working on a set of mountain symbols that PF have shown a passing interest in. The ones they don't want could well end up on that Patreon page as a sort of experiment

[Voolf]

Not broken, Voolf

If I seem quiet its because I am currently working on a set of mountain symbols that PF have shown a passing interest in. The ones they don't want could well end up on that Patreon page as a sort of experiment

It's good to know that you are still much involved in map making, even if its only on PF. Please post some maps from time to time here.

[aeshnidae]

It seems to me that this thread - interesting as it is - is pretty moot from a practical point of view. Very few members of this guild are able financially to finance a copyright violation process before a court anywhere. Most people here are limited to C&Ds and removal actions with IPs, etc.

True, but there are a variety of pro bono "lawyers for the arts" groups. I've filed three suits on behalf of artists. It's never gotten past the filing stage, at which point the company realizes the artist means business about protecting their IP and they settle. The mere act of filing the suit can be a very effective negotiation tool.

Anyway, this thread is more of an FYI because you can sue for infringement that occurs prior to registering copyright, so no need to rush out and register everything.

[Darkmage1337]

This topic strongly connects with a GameDev subreddit AMA session that I participated in this past week: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/com...l_services_to/

I recently asked questions regarding copyright & contracts "work for hire" for indie video game start-up studios; and, I received some good guidance answers from Zac Rich at PressStartLegal, a law firm that specializes in Intellectual Property for game developers, musicians, artists, streamers, content-creators etc. Feel free to read the Q/A for some interesting info & good stories.

Anyways, as far as officially registering one's work for copyright, he said: "I advise my Clients to register the copyright when you have the most compete project, or if this is going to be an ongoing long running project, when they've finished major sections and don't plan on returning to them. Another option would be before release when the project has effectively gone gold, or before or during early access releases."

Figured I'd pass along this guidance/non-legal advice to anyone who may be in the process or thinking about registering their copyrightable work. It is an interesting read, and PSL hosts free AMAs once per month.
But, then again, any authored work is copyrighted by default via common-law, so it may be best to register your copyright officially once you've gone commercial with that work in order to quickly deal with and prevent thieves and plagiarists.

I even directly quoted this recent copyright controversy/case: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/...of-plagiarism/ which literally occurred during the day of the AMA, just a few days ago, lol.

In the end, I imagine it is always best to play it safe than sorry in protecting your own work.
I hope these resources and stories helped.