Can level design be copyrighted?

[gamer247]

Roman can you tell us how did it all go?
Did they actually admit what they did?
Did you both sign an agreement after that?
Was it the publisher who developed it?

[Roman Budzowski]

I received the money from them and the case was closed quite fast... faster then I expected. They never said they admit to it, initially they said they are huge fans of Avalon Legends Solitaire, but when I said that removing 1-2 cards from our level designs doesn't make the work original and proposed reasonable fee (and by that I mean something that they can pay, that would cover cost of level design for them x2, and wouldn't be more than their game earns at the same time) they agreed to pay. On the invoice I wrote "License to ALS design for WS". That's all the paper work we did. In the credits the game mentions only 2 people, but I expected they worked on "work for hire" basis for publisher.

[lennard]

I am surprised that you were able to get them to come to the table. Good job and I'm glad you got something out of it for what seems like a reasonable investment in time and no $$$.

[luggage]

I'm just observing where it is all leading to.
And as I said it looks like " It is ok to steal, ripoff games and sell them", if you get caught you strike a deal with the developer, if you don't get caught well you don't get caught.
I'm 100% sure there are sites selling your games now. And it's probably been like that for the last 10 years.

@luggage - How do you know I'm not involved? Can you read people's minds? Maybe I have been, maybe even now my games are been sold somewhere and I can't figure out why I'm having low sales.

I'm not saying you're not on the receiving end of copyright infringement. But if you had even a glance at what it would cost to put a copyright infringement case through the courts, even in the same country, you would realise that what was done in this case is perfectly sensible.

If you want, you could list the games you've worked on, we find sites distributing them illegally and you can keep us all informed on how the court case goes. It would be quite interesting to follow.

[gamer247]

It's easy to say when you're the one not involved.

This is exactly what you said. Do not deny what you say.

I'm not saying you're not on the receiving end of copyright infringement. But if you had even a glance at what it would cost to put a copyright infringement case through the courts, even in the same country, you would realise that what was done in this case is perfectly sensible.

If you want, you could list the games you've worked on, we find sites distributing them illegally and you can keep us all informed on how the court case goes. It would be quite interesting to follow.

Again you are not reading my posts, are you? Please reread them all.

I would not like this kind of publicity for my games, nor do I want disclose my company.
Do you want to carry this talk to private?

As I said not only it gives a loophole to steal, ripoff games, it also encourages doing it.
You are just mad because you do not see any alternative except for negotiating a deal with the people who stole your content.

I do not have the right answer to this problem since many factors are involved and mainly are the cost of taking someone to the court to face justice.
Also the g-people do not want to spend their time on relatively small crimes where the accuser comes from abroad with a case on their own citizen. Take it from a guy whose friend works as a prosecutor in my city. And his dad works as a chief prosecutor of a province.

All I did is made the point that people will carry on stealing. With things going on like that.

So do not ask me “ What should we do?”

However if you can afford it you should press charges.

[Nexic]

Am I the only one who finds all of gamer247's posts extremely annoying?

[gamer247]

Don't read them.

[luggage]

And if you can't afford to sue, what then?

[gamer247]

Then change your job. Obviously you are not making enough.
Your games are sold illegally by some people , and you do not even know it wondering why my game doesnt sell well , hence you are not making enough money.

Remember in your way you want to deal with criminals if you caught them red-handed. What is the probability of you catching them?
And even when you catch them. They go like " Ok how much do you want 2-3 k$?, ok let's pay him we already made 30k$ on his game. But we are still going to do what we do. And next time we'll make damn sure you don't find/catch us again"
Don't forget to ask for the receipt from them, and ask for guaranties that they won't ever steal your game.
Ok?

Personally my revenue depends on the first quarter of the release of my games. I do not care what happens after. However if you have a long-term model, which is what you depend on, then you might want to consider an alternative career.

On the last note: Don't make crap games nobody wants, maybe then you'd have enough to take someone to the court.

[lightassassin]

Nexic I was here nor there with them at first... but that last post proves your observation to be correct =)

[CasualInsider]

On the last note: Don't make crap games nobody wants, maybe then you'd have enough to take someone to the court.

Please stop posting in this forum.

[luggage]

He clearly doesn't know how much it costs to take someone to court in comparison to what you stand to gain. It's kinda sweet how naive he's coming across. Would be nice if he put his money where his mouth is and take action against people who are pirating his games - assuming his games exist.