Episode 80: Law of the Geek

January 16, 2012

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Guests: Melina and Geoff

Five Fabulous Questions

  • Melina's favorite pizza topping is mushrooms and black olives
  • Geoff's favorite pizza topping is meatlovers
  • Melina's favorite supervillain is the Emperor from Star Wars
  • Geoff's favorite supervillain is Elijah Price
  • Melina would be a cat
  • Geoff would be a bear
  • Melina is playing Fiasco
  • Geoff is playing Mouseguard
  • Google Melina and find her profile picture
  • Google Geoff and find a picture of him in a white shirt

The Law and being Geeky

  • Being a geek and a lawyer
  • Working as a lawyer respresenting comic books
  • Settlements
  • Law of the Geek
  • Topics covered so far!
  • Check it out
  • SOPA, True Blood Wine
  • This is NOT legal advice. Please seek counsel if you have questions
  • Copyrighting
  • What should you do when starting your game
  • Protecting your work
  • Trademarks
  • Working with other people
  • Contracts
  • Ask questions
  • Go to seminars

Melina and Geoff's Corner

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Melina

  1. Gaming
  2. Pandas
  3. Tacos
  4. Dice
  5. Puppies

Geoff

  1. Puppies
  2. Gaming
  3. Pandas
  4. Dice
  5. Taco
 
 

Comment on this Episode




Discussion

Robert Sullivan
Jan. 17, 2012, 9:43 a.m.

This is an interesting episode but something not touched upon is the implications of employer rights. When I was a reporter at various newspapers I was under a "work for hire" - for legal purposes anything I wrote or photographer while on the pay roll was the "property" of the newspaper. This supposedly included family photos and my grocery list. It never came up as a problem but was discussed as a theoretical issue after a case following the Oklahoma City Bombing, where the employee of a company took a photo of the rescue effort which won a cash prize. The employing company was found to have legal rights to the copyright of the photo and the cash prize. The same rule applied to all of the employees of the newspaper. So, if you wrote the Great America Novel at home, it would actually be the property of your day-to-day employer. This has nothing to do with fair and everything to do with the law.

Geoff Gerber
Jan. 17, 2012, 11:17 a.m.

Robert, you are right. I thought this was something that came up in our conversation briefly when we discussed "work made for hire," but I could easily be wrong. The issue with employer rights has to do with the scope of employment. The employer owns (as an author) all of your creative efforts in the scope of your employment. The question then becomes, "What is the scope of your employment." That will turn on many factors, but primarily written job descriptions and employment contracts. I would certainly expect many employers who work in content creation (e.g., media companies) to consider "all creative efforts" clauses in their contracts, and I'd hope that all employees would be wary of such clauses. At my firm, I draft and review such contracts. In the absence of a writtend document with an expansive scope of employment, it would be difficult for an employer to assert "work made for hire," with respect to a receptionist taking photos. If you are hired to write, however, there may be an argument that when you write in the evening it is covered. Its the kind of thing that, as lawyers, we don't provide generic advice because each situation is different.

Geoff Gerber
Jan. 17, 2012, 11:22 a.m.

Clarification: first reference to "all creative efforts," is to those particular expressions fixed in a tangible form, i.e., subject to copyright.