Good Sample Contracts for indie teams...

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3 comments, last by Dan Violet Sagmiller 11 years, 1 month ago

I've had a few posts on how groups should address finances/ownership to begin with (and ex post facto). Almost unanimously, contracts, legal agreements and lawyers come up. Which makes sense to me.

However, I've had trouble finding good sample contracts to use, and most groups I know would have trouble affording lawyers.

1) Looking for links to good starting samples for financial/ownership agreements for indie groups.

2) Looking for a cheap online legal service that specialize in this.

(If possible to include references for contracts involving minors/legal guardians for these)

If it helps, I'm focused in WI, but US wide support would be preferred.

Moltar - "Do you even know how to use that?"

Space Ghost - “Moltar, I have a giant brain that is able to reduce any complex machine into a simple yes or no answer."

Dan - "Best Description of AI ever."

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1) Looking for links to good starting samples for financial/ownership agreements for indie groups.

2) Looking for a cheap online legal service that specialize in this.

1. I already gave you everything I've found on that topic.

2. These links are attorneys specializing in games. Try giving them a look, a call, shoot an email, at least.

http://www.obscure.co.uk/directory/directory-legal/
http://charnelaw.com/
http://maientertainmentlaw.com/
http://thegameattorney.com/

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

I already gave you everything I've found on that topic.

Thanks. I posted this as a separate topic, so responses like these are more organized under one heading for searching. So far, I've found MAI Entertainment Law to be helpful as a paid resource, which was referenced from your list.

Moltar - "Do you even know how to use that?"

Space Ghost - “Moltar, I have a giant brain that is able to reduce any complex machine into a simple yes or no answer."

Dan - "Best Description of AI ever."

Its pretty crazy that there is not a draft Generic Collaboration Agreement floating out there. I don't practice IP Law or Entertainment Law but I could create something pretty generic which would be helpful. I just need to look into all of the liability issues when you draft legal forms like that.

I would also suggest trial or free versions of Echosign or Docusign for electronic signatures. You can email the agreements to people, they sign then you sign. It's digital which puts a little bit of a cloud over the effectiveness of the signature but if you put in a clause digital signatures are valid means of executing the agreement you should be ok. A basic tenant of contract law is that the method of accepting a contract can be set out by the parties. Also, I don't think a judge would dismiss a case if the defendant admitted that they signed the agreement but their only defense was the fact it was electronic.

Its pretty crazy that there is not a draft Generic Collaboration Agreement floating out there. I don't practice IP law or Entertainment Law but I could create something pretty generic which would be helpful. I just need to look into all of the liability issues when you draft legal forms like that.

I did find this: http://contracts.onecle.com/type/90.shtml which has a huge amount of free contracts, the problem is that its hard to search. Like in this collaboration, it specifies that both parties receive equal rights to the product. That doesn't work for what I'm doing. I think it tends to be easier to have an attorney draft it for your needs in specific. But expensive. I'm looking at about 650 for legal drafts right now. Most groups I don't think could afford this. Often funds would be used in entirety to cover a pizza hack session on the game.

Moltar - "Do you even know how to use that?"

Space Ghost - “Moltar, I have a giant brain that is able to reduce any complex machine into a simple yes or no answer."

Dan - "Best Description of AI ever."

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