Practical Law 101 For Indie Developers: Not Scary Edition

The legal side of games isn't sexy, but it doesn't have to be scary. In this GDC 2016 talk, indie game lawyer Chris Reid offers a practical roadmap to the common legal issues that most developers will actually encounter.
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[WeaponOfMyDestructio]

So glad to see one on law its an important part that hard to find info on.

[balohna]

It was surprisingly hard to find an answer to "should I start a company as a solo dev" until I stumbled on this.

[DavidAmador]

Great talk. Looking forward to a second edition "A bit scary edition"

[StanleyMinnick]

This is old but so incredibly valuable! So much information and well organized, thanks to the presenter and to GDC for hosting all this content!

[hibryd]

Clear, concise, engaging, and informative; great speech! This assuaged many anxieties I have about how IP works and by getting an overview of the contracts behind games I feel like I learned a lot about how the business itself operates.

[helloofthebeach]

My major criticism of this talk is that the Bullet Bill depicting the "magic bullet" at 23:32 should be wearing a wizard hat.

[maxscribner]

This alone is giving me heart palpitations

[benjoe]

Very good talk. I'm from EU so not everything applies to me as said here, but at least now I know what to look for when say creating my company. Thank you for this one!

[GeoKureli]

Going to watch this every month until I have all my shit covered for this game. Awesome talk!

[Fishmaster]

Plug your headphones only halfway, this will solve your audio swinging left/right. Analog feature!

[robertwallace]

awesome talk! as a solo dev these issues are always on my mind. Thank you for giving a great overview

[alexandrecosta]

Very interesting talk!! Thank you for this.
And I really enjoyed how Chris presented this.

[danielvanoaksiii]

How big was this audience?? No one is laughing at these jokes and they’re hilarious!!

[amazedalloy]

The fastest reason I can give for being a company for tax reasons:

Income tax is higher than corporation tax

[urfavoritehumanbean]

Great speaker and a great talk on an important subject.

[ViceAdmiralHoratioNeIson]

Question: A lot of these things involve writing up stuff (contracts obviously, but also DMCA takedown letters, privacy policies, EULAs). Does a lawyer have to do that and stuff it with legalese, or can the developer just write it up in plain English?

[walterh]

Thanks for the talk Chris, I'll be showing it to a few mates of mine that want to start an indie "studio" for themselves.

[jeremynunns]

Good talk although one nitpick - scope creep does not need to be included in the contract - you only need to set out the scope of work clearly. If you go over that scope, you are by definition carrying out work outside the contract and are not required to do so under the contract. What he may be referring to is a variation clause which allows for an increase in scope of works to be more easily paid for if there is scope creep.

[ultgamercw]

Wow this is full of great information on setting up a games studio.

[igorthelight]

Very helpful video!
BUT! This stereo effect is very strange. If you want to ask me: "What effect?" - just listen carefuly.
Most of this issue is at the beginning.