Developing computer games and off-the-shelf software
Regulation in the software and gaming industries
There are numerous legal and regulatory considerations which game developers need to bear in mind when developing their products, such as:
IP rights and licenses
consumer protection
age ratings and classification
advertising laws
data protection and privacy
gambling legislation (do they tho)
responsibilities concerning staff and employment practices (really)
There are also various trade associations, which protect the interests of businesses in the industry:
The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) UK's leading games trade body
The Independent Game Developers' Association (Tiga) is the trade association which represents the interests of indie devs
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is the trade organisation representing the global commercial software industry
The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) represents both software publishers and users, and aim to combat software piracy
techUK, the UK trade body for the IT industry formerly known as Intellect, aims to improve growth in the IT industry and to provide its members with knowledge and advice
Intellectual property in games and software
Innovation is key to the video games and software industry. securing and protecting your intellectual property (IP) could be essential to the success of your business.
IP can apply to anything that can be legally owned - e.g. a brand, invention or design. This includes copyright to your software and all information held on any digital format.
Your IP is a valuable asset which can:
Form an essential part of your marketing or branding, including your unique selling point
Set your business apart from competitors
Be sold or licensed, providing an important revenue stream
Be used as security for loans
In addition to ensuring competitors do not steal or infringe your ideas, you should also make sure you are not infringing the IP rights of others. For example, have you used someone else's platform/audio/branding within - or in order to create - your software or game?-
Video Games and the Jurassic Future - The Legal Issues
IPR
You need to protect your work and/or investment. This is mainly about copyright and database rights. Make sure you check with those you bought your rights from to make sure everything is to their liking.
Patents may be relevant but the originality is high and will require specialist assessment to determine if you have any qualifying ideas or concepts.
Trademarks and domain names are generally more straightforward as they protect/reflect brands and names rather than underlying code and concepts. However, you will need to consider not only what you can protect but also whether what you have in mind might infringe third party rights.
If you are planning to depict any people in a game, you will need to procure releases from the rights hlders and failure to do so may result in "passing off" or other actions against you.
If there are in-game purchases, there may be further IPR ownership, licensing and infringement issues where the purchases of virtual goods/accessories are branded by the IPR owners or used without the owner's permission.
Another important area of IPR relates to design rights which may offer a route to protection of GUI and multiple visual elements.
The use of open source in the creation process may undermine any claim to IPR protection by the game's developers. Careful attention needs to be paid to governing open source licences such as the GNU family ro see what impact the use of open source code might entail.
Where the developers incoporate exisitng music or other audio or visual rights, permission or clearance will need to be sought/negotiated to clear any rights in the sounds recording and the musical composition (i.e. music and lyrics). Clearance will need to be sought from the record label and the publisher or collective right management organisation such as the PRS in the UK.
T&C & Data Protection
Not only do you need T&C which regulate use of your game and distribution agreements with your channel but also other sets of terms covering your use of gamers’ personal data and the cookies you or third parties place on their systems as well as an Acceptable Use Policy for in-game messaging.
Gambling and Social Gaming
Gambling in games needs to be properly lablled and regulated and treated in the same way as gambling in real life, especially as it is more accessible. Gambling should never be targeted at a child audience and if you know there is a large child audience you should look to remove that to avoid being liable.
Advertising
The video games industry has its own system of formal self-regulation to keep children safer offline and online: the PEGI age rating system. In particular, publishers are expeced to follow the Labelling and Advertising Guide to ensure the age rating icons and descriptors are displayed to consumers propt to purchase. Game advertising is also subject to the CAP Guidance on advertisements for Video Games and Films as well as the CAP and BCAP Codes. When developing your game it is important to consider both age verification services and parental controls.
Digital Marketing - Legal Issues
Digital Marketing is a growing industry with legislation for it lagging behind. There are legal issues, however, that digital marketing businesses need to be aware of to remain compliant. The House of Lords' released a report on "UK advertising in a digital age" in 2018 that noted that digital marketing acccounted for over half of all spending on advertising in the uk for the first time in 2017.
Digital Marketing Formats
The Digital Adspend study produced by industry body the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, breaks down 2017 digital marketing spend by format, as follows:
Paid-for search: Essentially sponsored search results. £5.82bn, of which smartphone spend was £2.62bn.
Display: £4.18bn, within which falls:
Online video: £1.61bn, of which smartphone spend was £1.17bn. Ads on youtube.
Banners and standard display formats: £1.31bn, of which smartphone spend was £418m. Banners on a webpage.
Native: £1.03bn, of which smartphone spend was £895m. An advertorial is native advertising, as are adverts which appear to be recommended by the publisher, influencer marketing on social media and adverts which appear to be search results.
Classified and other: £1.47bn. Online directory or marketplace.
Key Industry Players
The key players in digital marketing are Google and facebook, with Google getting about 90% of search advertising revenues in 2019, which totalled to around £7.3 billion, and Facebook getting more than half of the £5.5 billion put into display advertising in 2019.
Google puts ads on all their different apps using google ads.
Digital Marketing Legal Issues
All advertising must be obviously identifiable as such. This is a requirement under: