Welcome to Round 2 of the IGDA Contract Walk-Through! Each article is written by a lawyer with experience in negotiating game development contracts. Each article focuses on only one issue in a way that helps a developer understand it, negotiate it, and live with it in the context of his or her dev contract. And each article is annotated with real-life-experience comments from developers who have dealt with these issues in managing their own contracts. Since the first release of the Contract Walk-Through was published on-line in May, 2003, over 1,000 developers have downloaded the file from igda.org. This second release covers topics suggested by the IGDA Business Committee. Some of these, such as moral rights and equitable remuneration (“rental rights”), are rarely understood by American developers – yet can be important considerations when working with European publishers or American publishers who publish in Europe. A third release of the Contract Walk-Through is anticipated for March 2004, around GDC. If you have comments on this, or an issue you’d like to see covered, drop me an email at charne@usa.net, subject “Contract Walk-Through”. The primary objective of the lawyers working on the Contract Walk-Through is to provide service to the developer community. Your input can help us to better achieve this goal. In reading the Contract Walk-Through, it should be remembered that this is presented for general informational and educational purposes and is not intended to be legal advice. Every situation is unique and developers are always best served by working alongside their own experienced legal counsel. Jim Charne, Chair |