Playtesting and Non-disclosure

[Charles Gray]

How do you handle playtesting for a PDF game? On the one hand, Yahoo groups provides a very effecient way to get it done. But on the other hand, if it's a PDF, what's to keep someone from simply taking and posting it?
Is it an issue? The files would be Text or Word, with none of the artwork in them, so I'm inclined to think piracy wouldn't be a big problem. Certainly, SJ.Games hasn't seem to have had a problem with it.
Any comments?

[Labmonkey-XL]

get a lawyer, he'll be your best friend...

[Tim Kirk]

Well you can restrict file access into Yahoo to only subscribers--and then only let people subscribe who've agreed to signe an NDA--but Yahoo isn't the most secure thing on the planet.

So I imagine it's a risk if you do it that way.

I'm sure you could put them up on a password required site somewhere--and give the PW only to people who filled out and signed NDA's...

[thele]

Get their address and send them a Non-disclosure-Agreement (NDA) form. Make them sign it. Don't give them anything until you get the signed form.

Put serial numbers on each page or something, and change it for every test group. If they try and copy it and distribute it, you can track the number, fire them, and remind them of the form they signed.

Also put the NDA reminder on each page of your document.

Make sure they understand how illegal it would be for them to screw you.

~Le

[ZAON Netrep]

I wouldn't worry about disclosure.

NDAs are notoriously difficult to enforce, and even if you can prove in court that playtester Bob uploaded your game pdf to 5000 public newsgroups, you can only sue Bob and if and when you win judgment you'll find that Bob isn't rich enough to pay your judgment, and harder yet to garnish his wages (amount limited by law to a small percentage), not to mention the cost of suing someone which is also on your hands if Bob isn't rich enough for that and if the court even awards that as part of your judgment. You just can't win.

Also, 99% of the time it's the game's designers who think their idea is so kewl and unique that it has to be protected else the competition will steal it. Interestingly, 99% of the time no one really cares.

Most games and systems are too 'in-place' to adopt whatever cool idea you have anyway---be it a rules mechanic or setting/plot idea.

Finally, if you are still worried, then time is your enemy. The moment you go public for playtesting, work quickly toward a final press copy.

If you're worried about being copied (not your ideas, but your textin whole or in part), then just register with the US Library of Congress Copyright Office for some nominal $20 fee or so.

[Lord Iron Wolf]

Remember when you sign up to a Yahoo group, there is a clause that states everything you put up there belongs to them.

If you're that worried about theft, just print out your game and bind it in a form that makes scanning opening the book destructive and in a font that makes Optical Character Recognition (OCR) very difficult to impossible. Not that it isn't a royal pain-in-the-*ss to begin with. Do it in a small font size and even hi resolution scans will take too much memory to be easily downloadable.

I wouldn't worry about pirating, you aren't D&D or Vampire and with the psychology of most RPger's they like hardcopy (it's easier on the eyes for refs and you can carry it around w/o a power source.

Lord Iron Wolf

[Gold Rush Games]

Originally posted by ZAON Netrep
Also, 99% of the time it's the game's designers who think their idea is so kewl and unique that it has to be protected else the competition will steal it. Interestingly, 99% of the time no one really cares.

It's the 1% that use a kewl idea and beat your product to market that sting, though. ;)

If you're worried about being copied (not your ideas, but your textin whole or in part), then just register with the US Library of Congress Copyright Office for some nominal $20 fee or so.
Registering a copyright does not activate "protection" of the work. It is the initial creation that qualifies the work for protection under U.S. law. And registration is now $30 (plus two copies of a textual work, such as a book).

Check out the following web site for more information about copyrights:

http://www.loc.gov/copyright

[ZAON Netrep]

Originally posted by Gold Rush Games
Registering a copyright does not activate "protection" of the work. It is the initial creation that qualifies the work for protection under U.S. law.

True, but my point is that registering immediately goes a long way toward proving when your work was copyrighted---a matter of dispute in copyright suits. If you say you wrote it first, and they say they wrote it first, and you both have various 'files' (easily faked) that show work progress and file dates, it can be more difficult to prove who wrote it first ;-)