Game Development Legal Checklist: Clearance, Asset Provenance, User Content Terms, Streaming Policy, and Live Operations

By Casey Scott McKay · 2025-07-23

This checklist runs a game studio's legal programme from first commit to sunset, in the order the work actually falls. It opens with the asset register and the fields that matter, then works the licence categories that cause problems - marketplace packs, fonts, engine terms, open source, contractor deliverables, music, and voice. It covers title clearance and mark filings before announcement, and the registration practice that preserves statutory damages against a clone that has not appeared yet. It then drafts the user content licence against real use cases, completes safe harbour housekeeping, and publishes mod and streaming policies at launch rather than improvising them later. It closes with live operations terms, publishing agreement carve-outs, and a clone response sequence that starts with the store.

IP and Technology > Copyright | Checklist | Published 23 July 2025 - Updated 4 June 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

Summary. This checklist runs a game studio's legal programme from first commit to sunset, in the order the work actually falls. It opens with the asset register and the fields that matter, then works the licence categories that cause problems — marketplace packs, fonts, engine terms, open source, contractor deliverables, music, and voice. It covers title clearance and mark filings before announcement, and the registration practice that preserves statutory damages against a clone that has not appeared yet. It then drafts the user content licence against real use cases, completes safe harbour housekeeping, and publishes mod and streaming policies at launch rather than improvising them later. It closes with live operations terms, publishing agreement carve-outs, and a clone response sequence that starts with the store.

Keywords: game development checklist · asset register fields · marketplace licence limits · font embedding · engine and middleware terms · open source composition analysis · contractor assignment · music and voice rights · title clearance · intent to use filing · copyright registration timing · user content licence scope · safe harbour agent · repeat infringer policy · mod policy · streaming policy · stream-safe audio · virtual item terms · sunset provisions · clone response sequence

How to use this checklist

| Phase | What it covers | |---|---| | 1 | The asset register | | 2 | Marketplace and font licences | | 3 | Engine, middleware, open source | | 4 | Contractors and personnel | | 5 | Music, voice, and capture | | 6 | Real-world references | | 7 | Generative tooling | | 8 | Title clearance | | 9 | Mark filings | | 10 | Copyright registration | | 11 | Patents | | 12 | User content licence | | 13 | Safe harbour | | 14 | Mod policy | | 15 | Streaming policy | | 16 | Terms of service | | 17 | Monetisation and minors | | 18 | Data and moderation | | 19 | Publishing and platform | | 20 | Clone response | | 21 | Sunset | | 22 | Cadence |

Boxes marked [Gate] must clear before a build ships, before announcement, or before a demand letter goes out.

The matter. The clone shipped three months after launch with entirely new art. There was no copyright claim in the mechanics and there never had been. What resolved it in nine days was a store report about two copied screenshots and a confusingly similar title.

Phase 1. The asset register

[ ] [Gate] Start the register on the first commit, in the repository, not in a document nobody opens.
[ ] One row per asset or asset source, with: item and version; source type; date acquired; licence document reference; seat, project, or platform limits; redistribution and modification permissions; attribution requirements; whether it ships in the build; where it is used; and whether generative tooling contributed.
[ ] Store the licence document alongside the entry, not as a link to a vendor page that will change.
[ ] [Gate] Treat a missing licence reference as a build-blocking issue.
- Why. Provenance is the finding that most often derails a publishing deal, an acquisition, or a platform certification, and retrofitting it across three years of development is a project rather than a task.
- Trap. Deferring the register to "before we ship," at which point nobody remembers where the third-year assets came from.
[ ] Assign an owner who updates it at acquisition rather than in batches.
[ ] Audit it annually against the actual build contents.
[ ] Include editor-only and pipeline tools, which have their own terms and sometimes ship inadvertently.

Phase 2. Marketplace and font licences

[ ] Confirm every marketplace pack is within its seat count for the current team size.
[ ] Confirm project limits, where the licence is per-project rather than per-seat.
[ ] Confirm platform limits, since some licences exclude console or mobile distribution.
[ ] Check for prohibitions on use in products competing with the marketplace itself.
[ ] [Gate] Check whether the licence prohibits shipping assets in a form users can extract.
- Why. That restriction conflicts directly with mod support, and studios discover the conflict after promising mod tools.
[ ] Record attribution requirements and confirm the credits screen satisfies them.
[ ] Confirm fonts are licensed for embedding, not merely for desktop use.
- Trap. A font embedded in a shipped executable is frequently outside a desktop licence, it is trivially detectable in the binary, and font licensors enforce.
[ ] Confirm web font licences separately for any companion site or launcher.
[ ] Re-check seat counts when the team grows.

Phase 3. Engine, middleware, open source

[ ] Read the engine licence before the revenue threshold, not after.
[ ] Record royalty triggers, thresholds, and reporting obligations.
[ ] Confirm branding and splash screen requirements are satisfied.
[ ] Confirm any use restrictions — gambling, certain content categories, certain platforms.
[ ] Record middleware terms: analytics, matchmaking, anti-cheat, advertising, payments.
[ ] For each middleware provider, record data handling terms and sunset implications.
[ ] [Gate] Run composition analysis over the shipped build before ship, including any editor tooling that ships.
[ ] Classify results: permissive, weak copyleft, strong copyleft, network copyleft, non-standard.
[ ] Identify strong copyleft components linked into proprietary code that ships.
- Why. Source obligations may be ones the studio cannot meet, and remediation takes engineering quarters. See Copyleft and Consequences.
- Trap. Discovering this during acquisition diligence, when the buyer runs the scan the studio never did.
[ ] Confirm the notices file is accurate and shipped.
[ ] Confirm no component carries a patent termination provision inconsistent with any assertion plans.
[ ] Publish an internal policy listing pre-approved licences with a review route for anything else.
[ ] Run the scan on a schedule, not once.

Phase 4. Contractors and personnel

[ ] [Gate] Confirm every contractor executed a present-tense assignment before starting work.
- Why. Art and code from contractors are not works made for hire in most categories, and 17 U.S.C. § 204 requires a signed writing. Without one the contractor owns assets already in the build.
[ ] Confirm the assignment covers preliminary materials, source files, and rejected variations.
[ ] Confirm outsourced studios flow the same obligations to their own personnel.
[ ] Confirm employees are employees in fact, so works within the scope of employment vest under 17 U.S.C. § 101.
[ ] Obtain confirmatory assignments for past work where a gap is found.
[ ] Record any moral rights waiver where the jurisdiction recognises them.
[ ] Confirm contractors are not reusing assets they licensed non-exclusively elsewhere.
[ ] Confirm interns, jam participants, and volunteer contributors are covered.
- Trap. A game jam prototype that becomes the shipped product, with three contributors who never signed anything.
[ ] Maintain the gap list and close it, because it is the first thing diligence surfaces.

Phase 5. Music, voice, and capture

[ ] Confirm composition rights and recording rights separately for every track.
[ ] Confirm the scope: in-game use, trailers, soundtrack release, and streaming.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm streaming rights specifically.
- Why. A studio that licensed music for the game and not for third-party streams leaves its own community receiving claims on its audio.
[ ] Where streaming rights are unavailable, ship a stream-safe audio mode or publish a plain list of tracks to disable.
[ ] Confirm term and territory for each licence, and diary expiries.
[ ] Confirm sound effect library terms, including per-project limits.
[ ] Confirm voice talent terms: union or non-union, usage limits, session structure, and pickup provisions.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm express terms on synthetic reproduction of a performer's voice.
- Why. Publicity rights and increasingly specific statutory constraints apply, and the talent agreement is the place to address them. See Synthetic You.
[ ] Confirm motion capture performer releases and likeness rights where the performance is identifiable.
[ ] Confirm what happens to voice and capture assets on a sequel or port.

Phase 6. Real-world references

[ ] List trademarks appearing in the game world.
[ ] Assess each against Rogers v. Grimaldi: artistic relevance and whether the use explicitly misleads.
[ ] Note the boundary in Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products where the use functions as a source identifier.
[ ] Confirm licences where brands are featured commercially rather than incidentally.
[ ] For buildings, note that 17 U.S.C. § 120 permits pictorial representations of architectural works visible from public places.
[ ] For vehicles, aircraft, and firearms, assess trademark and trade dress exposure and obtain licences where the depiction is prominent.
[ ] For identifiable people, obtain releases with defined scope and term.
[ ] For real places and organisations, assess reputational as well as legal exposure.
[ ] Record decisions in the register, so the answer to a later letter is retrievable.

Phase 7. Generative tooling

[ ] Record which assets were tool-assisted, and to what degree, in the register.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm human creative contribution in anything the studio needs to own.
- Why. Material generated without human creative contribution may not be copyrightable, which means a shipped asset the studio believes it owns can be copied freely.
[ ] Read vendor terms on output rights, on whether inputs are used for training, and on indemnity. See Buying a Model.
[ ] Assess exposure where the tool was trained on third-party material and outputs may reproduce protected expression.
[ ] Confirm what the studio can represent to a publisher about tool-assisted assets.
[ ] For runtime generation, address moderation, safety, and disclosure in the terms of service before launch.
[ ] Confirm platform policies on generated content, which move faster than law.
[ ] Keep the provenance record, because a publisher will ask and an unanswerable question delays a deal.

Phase 8. Title clearance

[ ] [Gate] Clear the title before announcement, not before launch.
[ ] Search the register in software and entertainment classes, plus merchandising classes where the plan is real.
[ ] Search app stores and digital storefronts, where practical conflicts arise before register conflicts do.
[ ] Search domain and social handle availability at the same time.
[ ] Assess registrability: a single-work title is frequently refused as identifying the work rather than its source.
[ ] Assess descriptiveness, since genre-descriptive titles attract refusals and, if registered, weak scope.
[ ] Prefer a series name. Series titles register more readily, which is a practical argument for naming the franchise rather than the instalment.
- Trap. Choosing a title purely on marketing grounds and choosing one the studio cannot own.
[ ] Confirm no conflicting use in the studio's key foreign markets.
[ ] Record the clearance work, because it answers a later letter.

Phase 9. Mark filings

[ ] File the title on an intent-to-use basis under 15 U.S.C. § 1051 before announcement.
[ ] File the studio name, which is the longest-lived mark the business owns.
[ ] File main character names where sequels or merchandising are contemplated.
[ ] File distinctive logos and iconography.
[ ] Cover the classes the plan actually contemplates: software, entertainment services, and where real, clothing, toys, and printed matter.
[ ] Confirm use or bona fide intention for every class claimed.
[ ] Set a watch service for confusingly similar filings and store listings.
[ ] Monitor store keyword and metadata abuse, which is a trademark problem with a fast store-level remedy.
[ ] Docket declarations and renewals.
[ ] File in key foreign markets ahead of localised launches.

Phase 10. Copyright registration

[ ] [Gate] Register within three months of first publication.
- Why. 17 U.S.C. § 412 conditions statutory damages and attorney fees on registration before the infringement or inside that window, and clones appear at month three or four.
[ ] Register the game as an audiovisual work — the strongest claim, covering the sequences of images and sounds.
[ ] Register the code as a literary work, using deposit rules that permit redacting trade secret portions.
[ ] Register key art and character designs.
[ ] Register the trailer and store assets, which clones reuse routinely.
[ ] Register substantial text where the game carries writing worth protecting.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm ownership before registering.
- Trap. Naming the studio as author of contractor art with no assignment, which makes the registration inaccurate and creates a worse problem than none.
[ ] Update registrations for major versions, since a live game diverges from what was registered.
[ ] Confirm registration has issued before suit, per 17 U.S.C. § 411.
[ ] Budget for special handling when a live infringement is running.
[ ] Retain deposit copies filed against registration numbers.

Phase 11. Patents

[ ] File during development, not after a clone appears.
- Why. By then the disclosure has occurred and the invention is in the shipped product.
[ ] File on technical implementations: network synchronisation, rendering, input handling, compression, matchmaking architecture.
[ ] Do not file on gameplay concepts recited on a generic computer.
- Why. They will not survive 35 U.S.C. § 101 under the Alice v. CLS Bank International framework, and the money is better spent on registrations and marks.
[ ] Consider design patents under 35 U.S.C. § 171 for physical products, controllers, and tabletop components.
[ ] Confirm any filing precedes public disclosure of the invention.
[ ] Record third-party patent exposure identified during development.
[ ] Confirm no open source component's patent terms conflict with an assertion plan.

Phase 12. User content licence

[ ] Identify every surface that hosts user content: creation tools, chat, screenshots, replays, custom levels, profile content, and community forums.
[ ] Confirm players own what they create absent assignment.
[ ] [Gate] Do not purport to assign all player creations to the studio.
- Why. It is increasingly disfavoured, unenforceable in some jurisdictions, and reputationally costly.
[ ] Take instead a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable, irrevocable, perpetual licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, display, perform, and distribute content in connection with the game and its promotion.
[ ] Confirm the licence covers moderation, which requires reproduction and modification.
[ ] Confirm it covers marketing, including trailers and third-party platforms.
[ ] Confirm it covers incorporating a player creation into the base game, which needs derivative work rights and sublicensing.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm an explicit sublicence chain for player-to-player use.
- Trap. Without it, players cannot lawfully use each other's creations, which is the entire point of a creation tool.
[ ] Confirm survival after account termination, so a banned player's creation need not be stripped from a shipped update.
[ ] Address attribution and moral rights where players are credited or content may be modified.
[ ] Define prohibited content and reserve removal rights without liability.
[ ] Where creators may monetise, address revenue share, tax treatment, and earnings on termination.
[ ] [Gate] Have marketing and community read the licence before it ships, because they will identify uses the draft does not cover.

Phase 13. Safe harbour

[ ] Designate an agent and register it as required under 17 U.S.C. § 512.
[ ] Confirm the registration is current, and diary the renewal.
- Trap. Agent registrations lapse quietly and the protection lapses with them.
[ ] Publish the agent's contact details where users can find them.
[ ] Publish a notice-and-takedown policy containing the required elements.
[ ] Implement a counter-notice process.
[ ] [Gate] Adopt a repeat infringer termination policy and actually apply it.
- Why. Application, not publication, is what the safe harbour requires, and the failure is almost always in the application.
[ ] Record terminations, with dates and grounds.
[ ] Respond expeditiously to compliant notices, and record response times.
[ ] Confirm the studio does not curate infringing content or take a direct financial benefit from it while able to control it.
[ ] When sending notices, consider fair use first, per Lenz v. Universal Music.
[ ] Note that 47 U.S.C. § 230 covers non-intellectual-property claims from player conduct but neither covers intellectual property claims nor displaces moderation duties.
[ ] Review the whole package annually.

Phase 14. Mod policy

[ ] Start from the position that a mod incorporating game assets, or built to run within the game, is frequently a derivative work under 17 U.S.C. § 106.
[ ] [Gate] Publish a policy at launch rather than relying on silence.
- Why. Silence reads as permission, and later enforcement reads as betrayal — a reputational cost that has affected sales more than the modding ever did.
[ ] State whether non-commercial mods are permitted, and on what conditions.
[ ] State whether commercial or monetised mods are permitted, and on what terms.
[ ] State what may be used: assets, tools, file formats, and whether extraction is permitted.
[ ] State what may not: circumventing protection measures, multiplayer cheating, offensive content.
[ ] [Gate] State expressly that the studio cannot authorise redistribution of third-party licensed material — middleware, fonts, music — inside a mod.
- Trap. Granting permission the studio does not hold, which transfers the exposure to modders and back to the studio.
[ ] Take a licence back covering any mod the studio may wish to incorporate.
[ ] State revocation grounds narrowly.
[ ] Acknowledge that total conversions using the engine but no studio assets sit differently.
[ ] Note that 17 U.S.C. § 1201 applies independently where modding requires defeating protection measures. See The DMCA's Other Half.
[ ] Where official tools ship, carry the terms in the tool licence.
[ ] Amend prospectively only, with notice.

Phase 15. Streaming policy

[ ] Start from the position that a stream reproduces and publicly performs the audiovisual work.
[ ] Note that fair use is genuinely uncertain, and that Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith narrowed the transformative purpose analysis.
[ ] [Gate] Publish a limited licence rather than litigating the question.
[ ] State whether monetised streaming is permitted.
[ ] State whether sponsorship and brand deals around the content are permitted.
[ ] State spoiler windows for narrative games, with dates rather than vague periods.
[ ] State permitted use of the title, logo, and key art in thumbnails and channel branding.
[ ] State what the studio may do with clips — reposting, marketing use, compilations.
[ ] Prohibit narrowly: full cutscene compilations, unreleased builds, leaked content, misleading presentation.
[ ] [Gate] Resolve the licensed music problem before launch: license streaming rights, ship a stream-safe mode, or publish which tracks to mute.
- Why. Otherwise the studio's own audio generates claims against its community, which the community reasonably experiences as the studio's fault.
[ ] Publish community competition guidelines with thresholds for prize pools, sponsorship, and mark use.
[ ] Address machinima and derivative video in the same document.
[ ] Write it in plain language; it is a marketing asset as much as a legal one.

Phase 16. Terms of service

[ ] [Gate] Confirm formation: clickwrap at account creation, with a retained record of assent.
- Why. A term nobody agreed to binds nobody. See Terms That Actually Bind.
[ ] Confirm the amendment mechanism is notice plus continued use, with records of both, rather than posting alone.
[ ] Confirm licence grant to the player is a licence to use, not a sale of software.
[ ] Confirm account termination grounds, process, and consequences.
[ ] Confirm dispute resolution provisions and their enforceability in key markets.
[ ] Confirm the user content licence is incorporated or cross-referenced.
[ ] Confirm anti-cheat provisions, and that circumvention tools are addressed under 17 U.S.C. § 1201.
[ ] Prohibit real money trading and specify enforcement.
[ ] [Gate] Name an owner for the document.
- Trap. A terms of service with no owner drifts out of alignment with the business model within two updates.
[ ] Review on every business model change, not annually.

Phase 17. Monetisation and minors

[ ] Characterise virtual items as licences rather than property, and say so plainly.
[ ] Confirm the point-of-sale description matches the terms.
- Why. Consumer regulators have taken an interest in the gap between what is described and what is granted.
[ ] For randomised rewards, confirm the position in every market: gambling regulation, disclosure requirements, and platform odds-disclosure policies.
[ ] Publish odds where required or where platform policy demands it regardless of law.
[ ] Confirm age gating is implemented and appropriate to each market.
[ ] Confirm parental consent mechanisms for data collection from children.
[ ] Confirm refund practices for in-app purchases by minors.
- Why. This is an area of active enforcement with substantial penalties.
[ ] Confirm advertising and cross-promotion comply with children's advertising rules where the audience includes minors.
[ ] Confirm pricing display and currency conversion practices meet local requirements.
[ ] Review when the monetisation model changes, since the compliance position changes with it.

Phase 18. Data and moderation

[ ] Map what personal data the game collects: accounts, telemetry, chat, voice, purchase history, device identifiers.
[ ] Confirm a privacy notice exists, is accurate, and is presented before collection.
[ ] Confirm retention limits are implemented, not merely stated.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm access, correction, and deletion rights are operationally supported.
- Trap. Promising deletion the live service architecture cannot perform.
[ ] Confirm cross-border transfer mechanisms for player data.
[ ] Confirm third-party processors — analytics, anti-cheat, advertising — are under adequate terms. See The Data Behind the Marketing.
[ ] Confirm security controls and a breach response plan with notification timing.
[ ] Confirm moderation obligations under platform terms and applicable statute.
[ ] Confirm voice chat handling, which carries heightened sensitivity and retention questions.
[ ] Confirm what happens to player data at sunset.

Phase 19. Publishing and platform

[ ] [Gate] Read the intellectual property provisions before the financial terms.
- Why. The financial terms decide one game's revenue; the intellectual property terms decide whether there is a studio afterwards.
[ ] Confirm who owns the game, and price assignment as the sale it is.
[ ] Confirm sequel and derivative rights, which broad grants sweep up silently.
[ ] [Gate] Carve out reusable technology — engine, tools, libraries, pipeline — for the next project.
- Why. It is the single most valuable carve-out in a first publishing deal and it is routinely omitted.
[ ] Confirm who owns the title mark, and what happens to it on termination.
[ ] Confirm reversion terms: what comes back, when, and in what condition, including source, assets, marks, live service accounts, and player data.
[ ] Confirm approval rights and whether they extend to the studio's other projects.
[ ] Confirm exclusivity and non-compete provisions.
[ ] Record platform certification requirements, revenue share, and content and monetisation policies as constraints.
[ ] Confirm development kit confidentiality obligations, including restrictions on discussing performance in marketing.
[ ] Confirm what happens on publisher or critical service provider insolvency.
[ ] Produce a one-page rights summary per agreement, filed with the asset register.

Phase 20. Clone response

[ ] [Gate] Run the filtered comparison first: strip out rules and systems under 17 U.S.C. § 102, merged expression, genre conventions, and platform-dictated elements. Compare what remains.
[ ] [Gate] Check the store listing before anything else — copied screenshots, key art, trailers, descriptions, confusingly similar titles.
- Why. Store copycat policies reach conduct copyright does not, resolution takes days, and it costs nothing.
[ ] Search for artefacts: identical asset filenames, embedded metadata, shared string tables, the same typo, the same bug.
- Why. Artefact evidence moves a case faster than expert similarity analysis, and lazy copying leaves it.
[ ] Assess the trademark position under 15 U.S.C. § 1114 and 15 U.S.C. § 1125, including keyword and metadata abuse.
[ ] Confirm registrations are in place before assessing remedies, since 17 U.S.C. § 412 determines whether statutory damages and fees are available.
[ ] [Gate] Where only the mechanics were taken and the art is original, do not send a letter.
- Trap. Adding a mechanics claim to a good asset claim; the recipient answers the weak assertion and characterises the whole demand as overreaching.
[ ] Where a claim exists, identify the registered work, the specific copied elements, and the evidence.
[ ] Apply the same triage to public statements, which work in this industry and carry defamation exposure if overstated.
[ ] Tell founders at the outset that the mechanics were taken lawfully and redirect to what can be done.

Phase 21. Sunset

[ ] Confirm the terms of service addressed sunset at launch rather than improvising it.
[ ] Confirm the notice period committed to, and honour it.
[ ] Confirm refund treatment for recently purchased virtual items.
[ ] Confirm whether an offline mode was promised, and whether it can be delivered.
[ ] Confirm data deletion obligations and execute them.
[ ] Confirm middleware and service dependencies that must be wound down.
[ ] Confirm what happens to player-created content and whether export is offered.
[ ] Confirm mark and registration maintenance decisions for a title no longer operating.
[ ] Confirm reversion under any publishing agreement is triggered and documented.
[ ] Note that several markets now treat service shutdown as a consumer protection question.

Phase 22. Cadence

[ ] Per asset acquired. Register entry with licence reference, or the build blocks.
[ ] Per engagement. Present-tense assignment executed before work begins.
[ ] Per build. Composition analysis; notices file regenerated.
[ ] Before announcement. Title cleared and filed; studio and character marks filed.
[ ] At publication. Copyright registrations filed within the three-month window.
[ ] At launch. Terms of service, privacy notice, user content licence, mod policy, streaming policy published; safe harbour agent registered.
[ ] Monthly. Store monitoring for clones and metadata abuse; repeat infringer terminations recorded.
[ ] On business model change. Terms of service reviewed; monetisation compliance re-confirmed.
[ ] Annually. Register audit against build contents; composition analysis; safe harbour agent registration confirmed; mark renewals and watch results; policy review; registration updates for major versions.
[ ] On event. Publishing negotiation, platform certification, acquisition diligence, regulatory inquiry, or a clone appearing.

Phase 23. If you can only do four things

[ ] Keep the asset register. It decides whether a publishing deal closes and whether a demand letter is a crisis or a database query.
[ ] Get present-tense assignments before contractors start. Otherwise the shipped product contains assets the studio does not own.
[ ] Register the audiovisual work within three months of publication. It is the difference between a clone worth pursuing and one that is not.
[ ] Publish the mod and streaming policies at launch. Free, prospective, and it prevents the reversal problem entirely.

Phase 24. Metrics

[ ] Assets in the register with a licence reference attached, as a percentage.
[ ] Builds blocked for missing licence references, and days to resolution.
[ ] Contractor engagements with a present-tense assignment executed before work began.
[ ] Copyleft components in the shipped build, and days to remediation.
[ ] Copyright registrations filed within the three-month window, by title.
[ ] Marks filed before announcement, as a percentage of titles announced.
[ ] Safe harbour agent registration currency, checked annually.
[ ] Repeat infringer terminations recorded, against notices received.
[ ] Community policies amended prospectively only — any retroactive restriction is an incident to be reviewed.
[ ] Clones identified, and the proportion against which a right existed.
[ ] Store reports filed and resolved, with median days to resolution.
[ ] The one that matters. Whether a publishing deal, acquisition, or certification was ever delayed by an asset provenance question. That is what the register exists to prevent.

Phase 25. Scaling to the studio

[ ] Solo or small team. Register as a spreadsheet; assignments for every contributor; cleared and filed title; audiovisual registration at launch; a written terms of service. Skip patents, trade dress, and the mod policy until there are mods.
[ ] Mid-size with a live game. Add the full policy set, safe harbour housekeeping, a named terms of service owner, composition analysis in the pipeline, character and studio marks, and store monitoring.
[ ] Franchise. Add merchandising classes, character marks, a trade dress position where the interface or store presence is distinctive, technical patents filed during development, and a rights summary per agreement.
[ ] Publisher. Invert the exposure: diligence incoming studios' registers and assignments, flow down platform obligations, and template policies across titles with different communities.
[ ] Work-for-hire developer. Almost pure clearance: confirm what the client owns, carve out reusable technology in every contract, and maintain a per-project register so deliverables can be certified.
[ ] [Gate] Confirm the programme matches the studio's actual stage. Running a franchise programme at a two-person studio wastes the budget; running a solo programme on a live service leaves the exposure uncovered.

Outcome. The register had been kept from the first commit, which decided everything that followed. When the clone appeared at month three, the filtered comparison took an afternoon and confirmed what the founders already suspected — the loop, the progression, and the economy had been taken lawfully, and the art was entirely original. The store report about two copied screenshots and a near-identical title resolved in nine days, which was faster than any letter. An artefact search found nothing further, because this cloner had been careful. What made the next year different was that the audiovisual work, the key art, and the store assets had all been registered eleven weeks after launch, inside the window; the title and the studio name had been filed on intent to use before announcement; and the mod and streaming policies had gone up on launch day, so when the studio later shipped paid content there was no reversal to explain. Eighteen months on, a publisher's diligence asked for the asset register, received it the same day with zero missing licence references, and moved on to the financial terms. The mechanics remain copied. Nothing else does.

Key Authorities at a Glance

| Authority | Proposition | |---|---| | 17 U.S.C. § 101 | Work made for hire; audiovisual works | | 17 U.S.C. § 102 | Ideas and systems excluded | | 17 U.S.C. § 103 | Compilations and derivative works | | 17 U.S.C. § 106 | Exclusive rights | | 17 U.S.C. § 107 | Fair use | | 17 U.S.C. § 120 | Representations of buildings | | 17 U.S.C. § 204 | Signed writing for transfers | | 17 U.S.C. § 411 | Registration before suit | | 17 U.S.C. § 412 | Statutory damages and fees | | 17 U.S.C. § 512 | Safe harbour | | 17 U.S.C. § 1201 | Anti-circumvention | | 35 U.S.C. § 101 | Patent eligibility | | 35 U.S.C. § 171 | Design patents | | 15 U.S.C. § 1051 | Intent-to-use applications | | 15 U.S.C. § 1114 | Trademark infringement | | 15 U.S.C. § 1125 | False designation; trade dress | | 47 U.S.C. § 230 | Platform liability for user conduct | | Baker v. Selden | System versus explanation | | Tetris Holding v. Xio Interactive | Visual expression protected | | Google v. Oracle America | Interface reimplementation | | Sega Enterprises v. Accolade | Intermediate copying for interoperability | | Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix | Reverse engineering an emulator | | Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith | Transformative purpose narrowed | | Lenz v. Universal Music | Fair use before takedown | | Rogers v. Grimaldi | Expressive works and marks | | Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products | Source use limits the defence | | Alice v. CLS Bank International | Abstract idea framework |

The five things people get wrong

One. They have no asset register. It is the finding that derails publishing deals and acquisitions, and it cannot be reconstructed after three years of development. Start it on the first commit and block builds on missing licence references.

Two. They take contractor art without a signed assignment. Art is not among the enumerated work made for hire categories, 17 U.S.C. § 204 requires a writing, and without one the contractor owns assets that are already in the shipped product.

Three. They register the copyright late. 17 U.S.C. § 412 conditions statutory damages and fees on registration before the infringement or within three months of publication — and clones appear at month three or four with reliable regularity.

Four. They stay silent on mods and streaming. Silence reads as permission, and enforcement years later reads as betrayal. Publishing a policy at launch costs nothing and converts a discretion into a community asset.

Five. They send a demand letter about mechanics. 17 U.S.C. § 102 excludes systems and methods of operation, and Baker v. Selden settled it. The letter is answerable in a paragraph and it damages the studio's position in the next dispute.