In case you didn’t know, Tom Buscaglia is the man. He’s a lawyer based out of Florida who represents developers, and is incredibly active in the IGDA. And he’s got a new article on Gamasutra on contract law for game developers. It’s an awesome article. Read it, and be educated. Here’s my favorite passage:
The problem for developers is that most of the folks we do business with, especially publishers, have just done so many more deals than developers do. That means that they have been able to address more problem issues that negatively affect them in these deals. However, they have not addressed the issues that have negatively affected developers. Why should they? That’s not their job. That’s your job, or mine. For example, contract provisions addressing what happens if the developer goes into bankruptcy or receivership are in every contract. What happens if the publisher goes under is never addressed. Publishers go out of business all the time. And no business person should want to get tied up in a bankruptcy proceeding, especially someone else’s.
Words of wisdom, people!
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