For very good reason Microsoft do not let these forums be used for any kind of legal advice because:
- They do not want any liability
- There are few/no lawyers in here giving out advice
- Armchair lawyers are worth exactly what you pay for them
- Most of the advice would be wrong or unwise
Please note that asking a legal question and then saying "I'm not asking a legal question" just makes you look foolish and doesn't change what you are doing.
The only legal advice you can give in these forums is "talk to a lawyer" ;-)
If you want to help more then link to this post and let the mods lock the thread.
- If you want legal advice then go and see a lawyer.
- If you can't afford a lawyer then the thing you want to protect can't be worth all that much*
- If you want to look up Microsoft trademarks then look here
- If you want to look up other US trademarks then look here
- Yes we will reject Community Games if we see a trademark we can find on one of those lists
- No Microsoft have not given anyone permission to use the XNA logos
- Really, go and see a lawyer
- "I read it on wikipedia" may not get you much more than a big laugh in a courtroom
- This is a blog by a real lawyer http://legalplay.typepad.com/blog/ good advice there
- This is another one http://www.gameattorney.com/blog/ he writes for gamasutra too http://gameattorney.com/blog/?p=54
- We mean it... save up your money and go and talk to a lawyer.
Here's some advice from some wise men of the forums. Jon and Shawn on 'EULA clarifications':
Personal opinion: contracts and EULAs are written in English, and are usually reasonably easy to understand. At least in my experience, when people have questions about such things, that is usually because they are wanting to stretch some rule or other....These legal questions only come up because they are skating close to the edge. People who choose not to push the boundaries generally don't run into such grey areas where the exact interpretation of a wording can be important. So, you really have three options:
- Play it safe and don't push boundaries
- If you choose to push boundaries, be aware that you are taking a risk by doing so
- If you are uncomfortable with that risk, hire a lawyer to advise you about it
If Microsoft had anything more to say to clarify the EULA, they would put that straight into the EULA, because it (like any US legal document) is intended to be the full and whole agreement. Anything that's not written into it is not part of the agreement. That's just how it works.
* [Some folks didn't like me saying their game isn't worth much - here's what I mean]
Lets assume your game took you 400 hours to make (that's VERY fast!). Lets assume that even though you worked in your spare time that gives you a value of $10 an hour. Lets say you expect to sell 1000 copies at $2.50 and 70% royalty on community games. That's $4000 + $1750 = $5750. Is it worth spending a few hundred dollars on a lawyer to make sure that calling your game "Pacman Vs Pong" is OK? Is is worth the stress when you get the lawyers letter from Atari and Namco? Is it worth thousands of dollars of legal fees? That's what I mean by "Can't be worth all that much". Everything has a value - what would you spend to protect it?
The ZBuffer News and information for XNA
Please read
the forum FAQs -
Bug reporting