GETTING PUBLISHED PART 4:
Completing Your Contract Arsenal - NDAs, Employee and
Consultant Agreements
By Thomas H. Buscaglia, Esquire -
[cont'd from previous page]
The above NDA is set out as an example and was not
specifically drafted to apply to a developer situation.
But using even a basic NDA may have some advantages. For
example, it may help get that private funding source you
are looking at to treat your venture with a little more
respect than might have been afforded otherwise. Or it
might inhibit someone considering poaching your concept
from doing so.
That’s it for my initial series of GIGnews articles.
I hope they have been of some help to you. I will be
responding to questions over the next month while I
work on my part of the White Paper that the IGDA legal
group will be presenting at GDC in March. I may also
host an impromptu Q&A session at GDC if enough
rookie developers are interested. I submitted a topic
for a presentation based on this series of articles, but
the folks who run the GDC felt it was a little too
basic for their target audience. Apparently most rookie
developers don’t bother with (read as: can’t afford) the
more expensive conference passes. As a result,
attendance at entry level discussions is limited. But
there are plenty of bars in San Jose where we can have
our own little round table discussion on rookie
developer legal and business issues if anyone is
interested. 'Til then...
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BIO
Tom Buscaglia - Lawyer, Game Industry Evangelist,
Producer, and Hard-core Gamer.
Tom
Buscaglia is an attorney practicing technology law in
Miami, Florida. In addition to obtaining his Law degree
from Georgetown University in 1985, he holds a B.A.
degree in Philosophy from S.U.N.Y., Buffalo, with honors
in Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Law. Tom is a
principal in the law firm T.H. Buscaglia and Associates
in Miami, Florida, where he practices law for a living
and plays computer games and philosophizes on the side.
Tom’s firm’s web site is
www.intelaw.com.
Tom is the Founder and Executive Director of
Games-Florida, a non-profit committed to building the
Computer and Video Game development industry in Florida
by bringing Florida to the Game Development industry and
bringing the Game Development industry to Florida.
www.games-florida.org Tom has been the Chapter
Coordinator for the South Florida Chapter of the IGDA
since its inception several years ago, and is a
moderator for the Business and Legal forum in IGDA web
site, www.igda.org.
Tom is presently working on a chapter entitled
"Effective Developer Contracts" for the upcoming book,
The Secrets of the Game Business. Tom was a
presenter at the Game Developers Conference, in San
Jose, California, on the topic of "The
Phenomenology of Game Design". Tom has been a guest
lecturer at Full Sail in Orlando, Florida, giving a
presentation to the Game Programming students on what to
look for, and look out for, in their first
employment agreement with a developer.
As an independent game producer Tom is president of
BallroomGames, Inc. BallroomGames holds the exclusive
license for the use of the Arthur Murray Dance Studio
name and materials in conjunction with developing a
series of "girl" games based on the exciting world of
Ballroom Dance.
www.ballroomgames.com
As FaTe[F8S] Tom is the founder and Supreme Warlord of
FaTe’s Minions, an online gaming "clan" that has been
competing in various online competitions since January,
1998. www.f8s.com As a
"hard-core" gamer, Tom plays online on a regular basis
and has a gamer's appreciation and understanding of the
game industry.
